Peru has become the most food-insecure country in South America, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.

With the right national policies, digital technology can give “an unprecedented boost to sustainable development”, particularly for the poorest countries, the UN chief told the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday. 

While for many years the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis have been treated as separate issues, the reality – as highlighted on Wednesday at COP27– is that there is no viable route to limiting global warming to 1.5°C without urgently protecting and restoring nature.

The Day of 8 Billion, officially marked on Tuesday, is a milestone moment for human longevity, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), “signalling major improvements in public health”, but it also comes with warnings of worsening economic inequality and environmental damage.

Without coordinated action, this year’s “crisis of affordability” threatens to become a dire global food shortage in 2023, the UN chief told the G20 Summit in Indonesia on Tuesday.

With the global population now at eight billion and growing, action or inaction by the world’s largest economies, the G20, will be critical to determine if everyone gets to live on a peaceful and healthy planet, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press conference in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday. 

Amid a looming food security crisis linked to Sri Lanka’s cost-of-living crunch, the country’s most vulnerable breadwinners wonder how much longer they can cope, as the Government battles the nation’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. 

As “deepening divisions” threaten global peace and security, “dangerous rhetoric” is raising nuclear tensions, the UN chief told a meeting of Asian leaders in Cambodia on Friday.

Food import costs globally are projected to reach nearly $2 trillion this year, or higher than previously expected, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report published on Friday. 

Next week, the world’s population is due to reach eight billion, which the UN chief is describing as “a testament to scientific breakthroughs and improvements in nutrition, public health and sanitation”.