Climate change threat must be taken as seriously as nuclear war

13 Jul 2015

An assessment released today that was commissioned by the UK Foreign Office calls for countries to manage climate change as rigorously as other security, finance and public health issues.

E3G welcomes the conclusions which strongly support many of the recommendations from its 2011 report: Degrees of Risk: Defining a Risk Management Framework for Climate Security. These include developing comprehensive national risk assessments and a stronger set of central government institutions for climate risk management.

E3G CEO Nick Mabey said:

“This report is arriving at a crucial time. Current responses to climate change are failing to manage effectively the full range of climate risks. An agreement in Paris this year will be an important step forward but will not get us to 2 degrees. All countries need to better understand the potential consequences for their national security and prosperity of failing to meet the 2C goal. This will require robust national climate risk management regimes to be built in the years after Paris if we are to see the additional action needed to maintain a climate that can deliver global security and prosperity.”