Friday 24 February 2017

UN: Climate change poses increasing risks to global security

Climate change is emerging as one of the biggest threats to global security, the UN warns.

It states the impacts are seen across the globe, with rapidly receding Arctic sea ice, drought in the Middle East and a major heatwave in Australia.

California has also been impacted by severe drought and is currently suffering from torrential rains and flooding, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Former US National Security Advisor Richard Clarke recently said climate change is the greatest single risk to California – and to the US – and rising seas are likely to provoke chaos, potentially displacing millions of people.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the international community to rally behind the Paris climate agreement, designed to set the world on a path towards low carbon and greater resilience.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa also said climate change is the “threat multiplier that worsens social, economic and environmental pressures, leading to social upheaval and possible even violent conflict”.

She added: “If we fail to reduce emissions and build our capacity to cope with impacts, over the long term, climate change will result in more disruption, more instability and more displacement as impacts intensify. The world will be less stable, less secure… We must redouble our efforts or this story will have a dramatically different ending.”

Earlier this week, the head of OPEC reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to tackling climate change.