Dr. Juergen Voegele – How to feed 10 billion people and reduce emissions in a changing climate

In the 1st episode of Planet A’s third season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Dr. Juergen Voegele, the World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development.

Dr. Voegele is one of the world’s leading experts on the interplay between food production, agriculture and climate change. In his current capacity, he oversees the World Bank’s entire efforts on agriculture, food, climate change and the environment. 

In recent years, Dr. Voegele has emerged as a thought leader on the challenges that the growing global population and changing climate will pose for humanity in the coming decades. Most notably, he has applied his expertise as co-chair for the World Economic Forum’s sustainability network “Global Future Councils”.

In this episode, Dr. Voegele talks about the challenges posed by the expected global population growth from 7.7 billion people in 2019 to 9.7 billion in 2050. Firstly, we have to increase food production. Secondly, we have to make agriculture more resilient to a changing climate. Thirdly, we have to do it without drastically increasing land-use.

Dr. Voegele also lambasts the agricultural sector for failing to produce game changing innovation that can stem climate change. Not only, in terms of advancing crops and plants that can re-absorb more carbon. But also for failing to mass produce sustainable crops such as algae or inventing a viable fertilizer.

To Dr. Voegele, the international community needs to look at the entire food system. On the consumption side, a major problem is not merely diets based on carbon intensive stables such as beef, but also food waste. Today, food waste makes up 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than the total emissions of India and its 1.4 billion people.

Another question is whether – and how – we can transform agriculture into “carbon farms”; that not only feeds more people, but also serves as a carbon sink by growing crops that can capture and store CO2.