Press statement by co-hosts of the UNGA Foreign Ministers Dialogue on Climate Change and Ecosystem Degradation as National Security Risks

Press statement by the co-hosts UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs H.E. Dr Musalia Mudavadi of 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:

1. 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;
2. Commit to analysis and horizon scanning on climate and nature-related risks within our respective national and regional security systems;
3. 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;
4. 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.