Climate chaos, food crises threaten global peace

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations chief warned Tuesday that climate chaos and food crises are increasing threats to global peace, telling a high-level UN meeting that climate disasters imperil food production and “empty bellies fuel unrest.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the UN Security Council to address the impact of food shortages and rising temperatures on international peace and security — a view echoed by many countries but not Russia.

“Climate and conflict are two leading drivers of [our] global food crisis,” the secretary-general said. “Where wars rage, hunger reigns — whether due to displacement of people, destruction of agriculture, damage to infrastructure or deliberate policies of denial.”

“Meanwhile, climate chaos is imperiling food production the world over,” he said.

Guterres said 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 percent 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, told the council that climate change is contributing to food insecurity and conflict.

He said 1 in 10 people on the planet today already suffers from chronic hunger, and if climate change accelerates, “it will become worse.”

“Rapid, sustained action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to increase resilience is needed now to help stop both from spiraling out of control,” Stiell said.

The executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said the Security Council “must acknowledge more can be done rather than hoping the problem will go away — which it won’t.”

The UN’s most powerful body should be requesting regular updates on climate security risks, he said.

Beth Bechdol, deputy director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said scientific evidence is clear: “Climate change is compromising food security, and its impacts are a growing threat to international peace and security.”