Statement by the UK, European Commission and Kenya on the
security risks of the intensifying climate and nature
crisis
We, the Foreign Secretary of the UK, the High Representative of
the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and
Vice-President of the European Commission, and the Prime Cabinet
Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs
of Kenya co-hosted yesterday a meeting of Foreign Ministers to
underscore the security risks of the intensifying climate and
nature crisis.
Unprecedented wildfires, droughts, crop failures, and extreme
heat are profoundly impacting the resilience of communities,
economies and ecosystems around the world. Many of the
communities threatened or affected by fragility or conflict, or
facing severe humanitarian needs, are particularly vulnerable to
cope with and adapt to the climate crisis.
Recent months have been characterised by extremes including
record July sea surface temperatures, the warmest July on record
for North America, Africa and Asia, and sustained heatwaves in
Europe. This is already disrupting agricultural production
and supply chains, with implications for food security and
economic resilience. El Nino is expected to exacerbate existing
vulnerabilities including those relating to health, food and
water security. The horrific glacier collapse in Nepal
causing deaths and many missing people is unfortunately an
ominous harbinger of what lies in store if we leave the climate
crisis unaddressed.
As we discussed today, the impacts of global ecosystem
degradation are becoming more acute and systemic. We are deeply
concerned that this is occurring across all regions, with a
realistic possibility that some ecosystems will start to collapse
from 2030. Cascading and compounding risks are likely to include
geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict and
displacement and migration and increased resource
competition.
As an international community, we have made important strides in
tackling climate change and nature loss including through
initiatives on climate, peace and security. However as recent
events make clear, and with devastating impacts from El Nino to
come, we need to go further to meet these challenges and ensure
the international system is able to anticipate and respond to
climate shocks. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the
Paris Agreement and its strengthened implementation to address
the concerning gap between current emissions trajectories and
those required to keep 1.5C in reach, and to the swift, full and
effective implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
And we commit to working together directly and at international
and regional gatherings to strengthen action.
We:
- Regard the climate and nature crisis as a national and global
security threat. Tackling the causes and consequences is
essential to safeguarding the security, stability and resilience
of our societies for future generations;
- Commit to analysis and horizon scanning on climate and
nature-related risks within our respective national and regional
security systems;
- Will build on the success of existing initiatives, commit to
further sharing of analysis, strengthening of cooperation and,
where appropriate joint risk assessments, scenario and
contingency planning on the security implications of accelerating
climate change and nature loss;
- Commit to working together to address urgent transboundary
risks that require collective action including to anticipate and
respond to climate shocks and mitigate the impact of El Nino,
with a particular focus on the following:
- Accelerating action on fertilisers, food and water security
to mitigate the impact of shocks on existing food and water
crises;
- Expanding early warning systems, anticipatory action and
pre-arranged finance to reduce the immediate impact of extreme
climate and weather, and scaling adaptive capacity to build
longer term resilience and climate security to multiple and
overlapping climate impacts;
- Ensuring the multilateral development banks' crisis response
toolkits are fit for purpose in an era of increasingly frequent
climate shocks, and promoting existing efforts by the banks to
strengthen and standardise these tools;
- Promoting ongoing work by the IMF and World Bank to
strengthen the consideration of climate-related vulnerabilities
and resilience-building investments within debt sustainability
assessments;
- Calling on UN agencies to embed climate security
considerations and conflict-sensitive approaches, leveraging the
expertise of the UN Climate Security Mechanism (CSM);
- Strengthening recognition of nature and forests as critical
infrastructure for resilience, security and growth, and exploring
opportunities to integrate the protection and restoration of
critical ecosystems into economic planning, risk management, and
decision-making;
- And promoting ongoing work by the UN under the
Inter-Governmental Process on Beyond GDP to build pragmatic
economic growth models that integrate climate and nature
ecosystem resilience and inform evolution of the post-2030 SDGs.
We look forward to reconvening on these issues at forthcoming
fora including COP31, the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, and
through 2027.
