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Europe is struggling
for a second year with stream hot

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and dry weather.

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This farmer in Gopal
district has destroyed his crop.

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Minnesota has areas considered
to be in extreme drought.

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You've heard this kind of news.

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Drought, heat and water
shortages cause crops to die of

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thirst and that affects us all.

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Drought causes €9 billion
of damage per year in Europe alone.

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That could soon rise
to 65 billion if nothing is done.

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Somebody always pays.

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Farmer, the taxpayer,
the consumer or the planet?

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It's also economically
just not possible to keep on doing as

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we have done in the last decades.

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How can we stop
agriculture drying up?

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Olives are becoming scarce
in Spain, and without olive oil,

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Spanish cuisine is unimaginable.

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Consumers see what that means
when they shop for groceries.

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A year ago, a liter
of olive oil cost around €3.50.

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In June of 2023, it was about €6
and today roughly €10.

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How can that be?

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Spain produces its own olive oil.

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And is the
world's top exporter of olives.

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To understand why,
we follow the whole production chain

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all the way back to the fields where
the problem lies.

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Farmers like Narciso Ruiz are
at a loss.

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He doesn't grow olives
but still faces the same problems.

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His grain ought to be this high.

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He can no longer feed his
family from what he grows and plans

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to give up production.

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But they're not.

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They know I'm gonna.

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It won't even
be worth harvesting and there are

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many fields where nothing grows.

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It may be that the fuel
for the harvester is worth more than

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the grain it will deliver.

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Extreme drought is putting
farmers under pressure.

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They barely earn
a thing when their harvest fails,

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but the resulting supply
shortages cause prices to rise,

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ripple effects that affect us all.

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What's happening in
Spain is happening around the world.

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By the year 2050, drought,
flooding and storms could wipe

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5.6 trillion U.S. dollars from
global GDP in 10 regions that include

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China and the US.

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But why are droughts getting worse?

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In Europe, temperatures have risen
twice as fast as the global average

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in the last 30 years.

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This drought indicator
shows much of the continent colored

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orange for warning.

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Spain is bright red for alert.

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We have now
basically every year very strong heat

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waves in large parts
of the continent.

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That's Freddy Otto.

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The journal Nature named her one
of the 10 people who helped shape

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science in 2021.

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She assesses whether climate change
is responsible for extreme weather

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events or not.

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We do see a decrease in rainfall,
for example in the Mediterranean

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region and also in southern
Africa, so that there we do have

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really a double whammy
of climate change impacts on water

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availability and heat,
but in other parts of the world the

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the rainfall itself.

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As then the lack of rainfall is not effective.

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Argentina also
hasn't had much rain.

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About 55% of
the country is completely dried

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out, mainly due
to the climatic pattern La Niña.

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This year's harvest has been the
lowest in 40 years.

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Soybeans and wheat in particular,
are half of what they normally are,

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as are their exports.

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Argentina is one
of the world's top producers.

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This is not
an event that's happening in

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isolation because at the same time,
while the effects of the drought

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and heat in Argentina 
and other South American

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weed producing countries
were felt on the global markets,

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farmers in India
too have not been able to harvest

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much grain due
to record heat and floods.

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Indians are now paying much
more. Food price inflation has risen

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by about 10%. And worldwide

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India's ban on
rice exports is driving up prices.

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And there we have
the ripple effects again, as we've

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already seen in Spain.

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In other parts
of the world, the consequences can be

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much more extreme.

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It can lead to.

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Food insecurity, hunger.

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It can lead
to political instability as a result.

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That's Matthew Agarwala.

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He's an economist at Cambridge
and a senior fellow at Yale.

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He advises not
only the UN and the World Bank,

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but also the US government.

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But more on that later.

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One of the things that
farmers are doing in order to.

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Increase their resilience
in the face of drought is investing

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in irrigation technology.

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Drip irrigation is supposed
to be especially efficient.

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The tubes lie
directly among the plants and trickle

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small amounts of water.

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Here at Castle Winery near
Jerusalem, Israel is extremely dry.

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It has a worldwide reputation as
a model for sustainable irrigation.

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It also implements
other measures such as seawater

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desalination plants.

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Israel aims to use them to obtain
around 90% of its drinking water

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in the future.

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But drip irrigation is
commonly used by farmers.

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Here, plants are
mostly wet directly at their roots in

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order to save water.

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So if you compare
blip irrigation for rice. To rice

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growing in Paddy,
you save 75 eighty 65% of the water.

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But again depends on how, where do
you how do you compare it depends on

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the crop and the climate
and so on and so forth.

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Anything I would say that a good plug
number is around 30%.

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The Israeli company Netafim produces
the systems and is seen as a pioneer

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of drip irrigation.

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Right now, demand is rising,
especially from countries with

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extensive farmland such
as the US, Brazil and China,

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which are among
the world's biggest food exporters.

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But technology is
not always the answer.

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Every time that we have ever seen an
expansion of irrigation technology,

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we have seen an increase in water
consumption through agriculture.

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That means they produce
thirstier crops, It means they expand

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the area under irrigation.

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And many smaller scale
farmers cannot afford electricity

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pumps and filters.

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They depend on rainwater,
like most farmers the world over.

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This is not an argument
against efficient irrigation.

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Not at all.

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What it means is that irrigation
systems alone will not solve

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challenges related to
water stress and scarcity.

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They need to be addressed
through technological fixes.

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Behavioral Change and Policy change.

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Matthew Agarwala Research's
Natural Capital and even advises

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the US government.

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Now it wants to quantify the costs
of ecological decay, a new strategy

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that John Kerry wanted
to present in Davos this year and

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inspire media interest.

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But what does
it mean a national strategy to put

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nature on the nation's balance sheet?

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Until now, natural resources
like soil or water didn't appear

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in the statistics.

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Almost everything referred
to GDP and economic growth.

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And that's now set to change.

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Imagine you're running a bakery.

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The size of
the pie you can produce in the future

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depends on the stock
of ingredients in your pantry.

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Run out of ingredients
and tomorrow's pie is smaller.

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It turns out that the economy
operates in exactly the same way.

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Simply put, those who destroy the
soil or use too much water must pay.

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Sounds good, but it has
yet to be implemented, right?

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There are 100 different
countries that are developing

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natural capital accounts.

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This includes India, Australia,
the United Kingdom,

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the Netherlands, Germany.

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In fact,
everywhere in Europe is developing

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natural capital accounts
in some degree.

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So how can we prevent
agriculture from drying up?

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Different irrigation techniques
can help, but small scale farmers

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often lack the money
for this and research shows this

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doesn't reduce water use.

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Politicians are taking
new steps that also take the price of

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nature into consideration,
and not just GDP and economic growth.

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Many countries around the world are
already working on this.

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Anything that is unsustainable will
not be sustained.

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The only question?

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Is whether we decarbonize
by design through deliberate policies

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and behavioral change,
or we do so through disaster.

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By failing to make the changes today.