Droughts, Floods and Food Systems Risk Dialogue – Part I: When El Niño meets global warming: The rise of compound drought extremes
Time
15:00 - 16:00 CET
About
As the 2026-2027 "Super" El Niño unfolds against a backdrop of unprecedented global warming, the world is facing a perfect storm for food insecurity. Simultaneous crop failures across major agricultural regions, mounting pressure on global food markets, and escalating drought risks are exposing the vulnerability of food systems worldwide.
In August 2026, the United Nations warned that El Niño-related shocks could push an additional 49 million people into acute food insecurity, bringing the total number of people facing crisis-level hunger or worse to 274 million across 45 countries.
But the implications extend far beyond a single season's harvest. Extreme climate events are increasingly interacting with long-term climate change, creating cascading risks across food systems, ecosystems, economies, and societies. Severe droughts can leave lasting impacts on landscapes and livelihoods, while disruptions to agricultural production and trade can reverberate across the globe.
In Part 1 of the Risk Dialogue Series on "Droughts, Floods and Food Systems," experts and participants will examine how changing climate extremes are transforming drought risk and reshaping the future of food security. Together, we will explore the interconnected risks facing food systems, from crop losses and supply chain disruptions to ecosystem degradation and rising human vulnerability and discuss what these trends mean for resilience in an increasingly uncertain world.
Speakers
- Dr. Roger S. Pulwarty, Acting Director and Chief Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Physical Sciences Laboratory
- Mr. Richard Choularton, Director for Climate and Resilience at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
- Antra Bhatt, Statistics Specialist at UN Women
- UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) - speaker to be confirmed
- World Health Organization (WHO) - speaker to be confirmed
- Ms. Loretta Hieber Girardet, Chief of the Risk Knowledge, Monitoring, and Capacity development Branch at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) - Chair