Ozone pollution reduction partially offsets the negative impact of climate change mitigation efforts on global hunger
Studies warning of the potential negative effects of climate mitigation on food security through the competing use of land for bioenergy and afforestation have overlooked the impact of reduced ozone and its potential enhancement of crop yields. Here we use six global agro-economic models to compare the impacts of climate change with climate mitigation policy and ozone reduction on agriculture. We find that ozone reduction could reduce the negative impact of a 1.5 °C-consistent climate change mitigation policy on global hunger by 15% in 2050. Sub-Saharan Africa and India, where hunger is most severe, account for 56% of this global reduction. Our findings indicate that the negative effects of climate mitigation on global hunger could be partially offset by the ozone reduction impact.
Authors
- Ipsita Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6193-7927)
- Keith Wiebe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6035-620X)
- Jonathan Doelman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6842-573X)
- Jun’ya Takakura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6184-8422)
- Maksym Chepeliev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8585-2314)
- Yuki Ochi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8683-7471)
- Thanapat Jansakoo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4377-3439)
- Daniel Mason-D’Croz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0673-2301)
- Shujuan J. Xia
- Thijs de Lange (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1599-7037)
- Timothy B. Sulser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7128-5283)
- Xin Zhao
- Kazuaki Tsuchiya
- Kiyoshi Takahashi
- Matthew Gibson
- Abhijeet Mishra
- Tomoko Hasegawa
- Willem-Jan van Zeist
- Petr Havlík
- Thais Diniz Oliveira
- Mario Herrero
- Shinichiro Fujimori
- Marta Kozicka
- Marina Sundiang
Institutions
- Joint Global Change Research Institute (US)
- Atkins (United States) (US)
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (AT)
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NL)
- Ritsumeikan University (JP)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- International Food Policy Research Institute (US)
- Kasetsart University (TH)
- National Institute for Environmental Studies (JP)
- The Open University of Japan (JP)
- Cornell University (US)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- New York State College of Agriculture & Life Sciences (US)
- Kyoto University of Education (JP)
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Food
- Published
- 2026-03-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-026-01322-3
- Primary Topic
- Plant responses to elevated CO2
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency
- European Commission
- Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers
- David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future , Cornell University
- Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell University