Dr Jeevun Sandher

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. We live in a world where climate change is leading to rising prices and to more hunger. World food prices are up by 30%. The number of undernourished people is rising across the world. Here in the UK, food prices have increased by almost 40%, and one in eight people are skipping meals. That is because a warming planet is leading to drought and to failed harvests. We can stop that by sorting out and investing in our global food system. That is about investing in sustainable agriculture, irrigation, digging wells, ecosystem management and stopping emissions so that we have a planet where all of us can cohere and work together. We must also ensure that there is emergency food and income support when our food systems fail and people go hungry, as is happening here and across the globe. When I speak about hunger and drought, I do not speak merely about what I have read; I speak about things that I have seen and experienced. For two years, between 2016 and 2018, I worked in the Somaliland Ministry of Finance. I was, I think, the only economist there, and I did its budgets, its economic policy and its national development plan. I was there during Somaliland’s worst drought in living memory, and a widespread hunger that led to almost a famine. I can tell hon. Members across the Chamber that one does not forget what hunger looks like when it is etched into a child’s face. It was incredibly difficult. Climate change had led to droughts, which had led to failed harvests, to insufficient produce for herds and to dying animals. In the immediate moment, there was not a huge amount we could do, but we could sort out the budget system to enable us to invest in greater food production, wells and irrigation, with a bit of money left on the side to ensure emergency food and income support. I was pleased to see that those measures are still in place. Unfortunately, as I speak here today, Somaliland is going through another drought and even more hunger, because of rising temperatures, a burning planet and failed harvests once again. It is for all of us in this place, and for nations across the globe, to stop emitting carbon so that every single person across our planet can afford to eat.