UN warns conflict, climate change, food insecurity threaten global peace
The United Nations secretary-general has warned that climate chaos and food crises are increasing threats to global peace.
Antonio Guterres told the UN security council that climate disasters imperil food production and “empty bellies fuel unrest.”
Mr Guterres urged the council to address the impact of food shortages and rising temperatures on international peace and security.
He said: “Climate and conflict are two leading drivers of (our) global food crisis.
“Where wars rage, hunger reigns — whether due to displacement of people, destruction of agriculture, damage to infrastructure, or deliberate policies of denial.”
The secretary-general added: “Meanwhile, climate chaos is imperilling food production the world over.”
Mr Guterres warned the world is teeming with examples of “the devastating relationship between hunger and conflict.”
In war-torn Gaza, he said, no-one has enough to eat and the tiny strip accounts for 80 per cent of the 700,000 hungriest people in the world.
After more than a decade of war in Syria, he said, 13 million Syrians go to bed hungry every night. And in Myanmar, prospects of ending hunger have gone into reverse because of conflict and instability, he said.
Simon Stiell, the United Nations climate chief, said one in 10 people on the planet today already suffers from chronic hunger and if climate change accelerates, “it will become worse.”
He said: “Rapid, sustained action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to increase resilience is needed now to help stop both from spiralling out of control.”
Beth Bechdol, deputy director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, said scientific evidence is clear: “Climate change is compromising food security.”
She reiterated a long-time FAO warning: “There is no food security without peace, and no peace without food security.”
Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, whose country holds the council presidency this month and chaired the meeting, said the council “must take into account the consequential effects on food security and climate in addressing the issues of conflict and war.”
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia slammed the Western colonial powers and the United States as “the real root causes” of the problems facing developing countries in Africa and elsewhere today.
He said “they continue to syphon resources” away from former colonies and take military action “against problematic sovereign countries to destroy their statehood” pointing to former Yugoslavia, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.