Climate change and biodiversity loss are interdependent and produce compounding impacts which threaten both human health and nutrition. Changing temperatures combined with extreme weather events are already having profound impacts on ecosystems, agricultural production and supply chains – and consequently, the accessibility and affordability of a nutritious diet for millions of people. Despite their interconnectedness, climate and nutrition continue to be addressed in silos. The Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN) is a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral initiative working to accelerate transformative action at the critical nexus of these two issues.
Climate Focus, together with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has developed an update to the 2023 I-CAN Baseline Assessment, which assessed levels of integration of climate and nutrition. The 2025 I-CAN Assessment Report – ‘Advancing Synergies Across Nutrition and Climate Action’ assesses the current state of integration across 16 indicators relating to policy and finance. The report aims to provide a snapshot of how well governments, financial institutions and private sector actors across different countries are aligning their action on climate and nutrition.
Despite modest progress since 2023, the report shows that integration of climate and nutrition in key international and national policies and financing remains limited. Key findings include:
- Only 21% of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) show some intention to integrate climate action and nutrition – including 64 updated NDCs published in advance of the September 2025 deadline
- Only 1% of the USD 137 billion provided in climate-related Official Development Assistance (ODA) supports activities which explicitly mention nutrition
- None of the 350 companies assessed by the World Benchmarking Alliance Food and Agriculture Benchmark, scored well on both nutrition and environmental sustainability.
The 2025 Assessment highlights the urgent need for governments and financiers to make nutrition a priority target area for both climate mitigation and adaptation interventions. Integrated approaches to tackling climate change and nutrition crises offer win-win solutions across multiple sectors, and countries’ efforts to tackle climate change moving forward will directly shape how global nutrition outcomes evolve over the next decade.
Explore the report in detail on GAIN’s website.
About I-CAN:
I-CAN was launched in 2022 during COP27 by the Presidency of Egypt, hosted by WHO with core partners including GAIN, FAO, UNEP and the SUN Movement. Over the past three years I-CAN has worked to advance integrated action across several pillars of work including national-level policy analysis and technical support in 13 countries. I-CAN is an active part of the wider Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) and connects to many other existing initiatives, coalitions and networks to strengthen the integration of nutrition into climate, food, and health action.
