Roughly half of the world’s population currently experiences severe water 
scarcity for at least some part of the year due to a combination of climatic 
and non-climatic drivers (medium conﬁdence) (Figure 2.3). Unsustainable 
agricultural expansion, driven in part by unbalanced diets77, increases 
ecosystem and human vulnerability and leads to competition for land 
and/or water resources (high conﬁdence). Increasing weather and climate 
extreme events have exposed millions of people to acute food insecurity78 
and reduced water security, with the largest impacts observed in many 
locations and/or communities in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, 
LDCs, Small Islands and the Arctic, and for small-scale food producers, 
low-income households and Indigenous Peoples globally (high conﬁdence). 
{WGII SPM B.1.3, WGII SPM.B.2.3, WGII Figure SPM.2, WGII TS B.2.3, 
WGII TS Figure TS. 6; SRCCL SPM A.2.8, SRCCL SPM A.5.3; SROCC SPM A.5.4., 
SROCC SPM A.7.1, SROCC SPM A.8.1, SROCC Figure SPM.2} 
77 
Balanced diets feature plant-based foods, such as those based on coarse grains, legumes fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and animal-source foods produced in resilient, 
sustainable and low-GHG emissions systems, as described in SRCCL. {WGII SPM Footnote 32}
78 
Acute food insecurity can occur at any time with a severity that threatens lives, livelihoods or both, regardless of the causes, context or duration, as a result of shocks risking 
determinants of food security and nutrition, and is used to assess the need for humanitarian action.