Dr. Nguyen Van Bo, head of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Science, has been named to a new international commission on sustainable agriculture and climate change created to confront threats to global cooking security.

The new commission is an initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), with additional support from the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, or CGIAR, is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for sustainable development with the funders of this work. It announced the creation of the commission on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Chaired by the United Kingdom’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir John Beddington, the commission will in the next ten months seek to build international consensus on a set of policy actions to help global agriculture adapt to climate change, achieve food security and reduce poverty and greenhouse gas emissions, CGIAR said.

Vietnamese commissioner Bo will join senior scientists from 13 countries as they work to build the policy set.

The commission brings together senior natural and social scientists working in agriculture, climate, food and nutrition, economics, and natural resources from Australia, Brazil, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, France, Kenya, India, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, the US and Vietnam.

The World Bank reported in February that the recent rise in food prices – which included a doubling of wheat prices and a 73 percent increase in maize prices – has already pushed an extra 44 million people into poverty. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said food prices have been an "aggravating factor" in the political turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East and that their destabilizing effect “could become more serious.”

The commission has been set up by the CCAFS, a 10-year effort launched by the CGIAR and the Earth System Science Partnership. The Partnership was established in 2001 to promote cooperation for the integrated study of the Earth system, the changes that are occurring to the system and the implications of these changes for global sustainability.

Besides heading the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Science, Dr. Bo is currently a member of the Policy Advisory Council of the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research.