foreign
less secure
alongside the war in Ukraine there are
currently 50 armed conflicts happening
around the world today
a number which is more than doubled in
the last 10 years
there's been a breakdown of Arms Control
intentions over Taiwan are increasing
and then at the same time we have this
escalating set of environmental problems
plastic pollution soil is degrading
species populations are rapidly
declining
since 2014 we've seen eight of the
warmest years on record
and we don't need to go into academic
textbooks or reports to see the
consequences
in 2020 we saw one of the worst heat
waves ever in China a 500 1 in 500 year
drought in Europe devastating floods in
Pakistan wildfires in Canada and a
drought that's creating huge food
insecurity in the Horn of Africa
an environmental challenge
and a security challenge two huge
enormous
problems coming at us parallel
challenges vying for our attention
but what if I said that they weren't in
fact parallel but they were in fact
linked
and if so why are we not trying to
address them together
my name is Claire McAllister and I work
for the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute and for the last
three years I've been working with more
than 30 researchers on a project that's
been trying to explore how we can build
an environment of peace
and today I want to try and untangle why
climate change and environmental
degradation on the one hand and peace
and security on the other are
intrinsically interlinked why they are
making each other worse and how if we
try and solve them together we have a
chance to build not only a more peaceful
but also a more sustainable world
nearly half of the country's most
vulnerable to climate change today are
affected by conflict
climate change and environmental
degradation don't by themselves
lead to conflict but what our research
shows is that they put pressure on lives
and livelihoods
that in already fragile economic and
social situations or places with weak
governance
do create tensions between societies
create competition over resources and
can lead to conflict
and in countries already affected by
conflict
the effect of extreme weather can be
devastating
take Somalia
a country that is suffering one of its
worst droughts in its history after five
consecutive poor rainy seasons
that drought means less food on the
table it means
more competition over resources it means
more tensions in communities
it means people have to move from their
homes
one million somalis have currently been
displaced often moving to crowded urban
areas creating yet more tensions
that means they can take advantage of
the situation destroying critical
infrastructure
and attacking relief efforts and all the
while the people in Somalia have less
and less ability to try and prepare for
the next Crisis
or to adapt to our changing climate
environmental impacts making an already
fragile situation more fragile
environment and security feeding each
other
and our research shows that these are
not confined to specific countries these
impacts are now compounding and
cascading all across the world
and Somalia in fact is just one of the
countries that is being impacted by the
war in Ukraine
because alongside the devastating
impacts for those people living in
Ukraine and alongside the increased
security risk for the region
the decline in food and fertilizer
coming out of the Ukraine and Russia
means has has impacted food prices and
food availability in many other regions
of the world some of which are fragile
some of which are politically volatile
and we've seen with energy as well how
the Reliance on a fossil fuel dependent
Energy System has meant an energy crisis
for many countries and contributing to a
cost of living crisis
and then there's the impact on the
environment itself not just on the on
for the environmental destruction that
we've seen in Ukraine for military
operations but also undermining
International cooperation needed to
address these huge challenges such as
climate change and sustainable
development
for many European countries they've
moved budgets to Military and
humanitarian spending which means less
resource and less Manpower for things
like climate change and development
it can feel
like we've entered a new era of risk
there is a way forward but it starts
with acknowledging that these two crises
are interlinked and to address them we
need to address them together
it means understanding that the
decisions we're making today have
long-term consequences and understanding
those consequences as we make them
the the science is clear every bit of
warming matters and the warmer the world
gets the more profound and the more
widespread the impacts will be inaction
on climate change and environmental
degradation today increases the security
risks of tomorrow
the known security risks food insecurity
water insecurity Health crises but also
the unknown risks that come from
potentially reaching ecological tipping
points
and
in a
in in their world and those impacts they
will be hitting the longer it takes for
Deco for industrial countries
to move away from fossil fuel economies
the the the
higher the cost will be
not just to the environment not just to
the economy but to our lives and our
livelihoods
because if the covered pandemic has
taught us anything it's taught us that
what happens in one part of the world
affects another part of the world but it
also showed us but where there was there
was a will to cooperate and address a
problem people could move fast
in a world of these Global challenges
like climate change
we need to cooperate we no country can
ensure the well-being of its citizens
without International cooperation
sometimes in the with all the security
challenges that we're facing today it's
important that we don't take that that
doesn't take place in a way that they're
not addressed
in a way that will affect the long-term
security risks from climate change and
environmental degradation of tomorrow
and it doesn't have to be a trade-off
in 2021 military spending
surpassed two trillion dollars
five to seven trillion dollars are
estimated to be spent at the moment on
direct and indirect
subsidies which are funding activities
that damage our environment and yet at
the same time
countries still haven't met the ambition
of providing a hundred billion dollars
for climate action
but if we understand
the security impacts of not addressing
climate change can't we start to
understand that investing in climate
action is actually investing in our own
security
so what
does it mean to be trying to address
these questions together
well it means integrating
environmental considerations into our
security plans and security
considerations into our environment
plans it means integrating climate
knowledge and action into development
into humanitarian Aid and into peace
building
it means providing more climate change
education to those people in
peacekeeping missions it means
environmental Provisions in peace
agreements it means better education
about this twin environment and security
crisis
in in classrooms but also in boardrooms
above all it means trying to build not
only a just but a peaceful transition
because what our research shows is that
poorly designed environmental action can
in fact increase Injustice inequalities
and potentially lead to new conflict
undermining the very goals the very
environmental Ambitions that they're
trying to achieve
but well-designed environmental action
that can create more resilient and more
peaceful communities
and often it means
bringing in the people most affected by
those policies into the very beginning
into the design and onto into the
implementation deliberately being
inclusive not because it's the right
thing to do but because it creates
better outcomes
and it's also a question of Finance
between 2014 and 2019 the most fragile
countries in the world received 1 80th 1
80th of climate Finance I went to
non-fragile States
if those countries that are the most
vulnerable and the least able to respond
don't get access to the funding they
need to address climate change
then we're setting ourselves up to fail
s like we're at a Crossroads the science
is clear we know what we need to do much
of the technology is there and yet we're
not moving at the speed that we need to
these are existential risks
and this twin environment and security
challenge is probably one of the biggest
political challenges of our time
but it's also an opportunity it's an
opportunity to do things differently to
build a more peaceful a more sustainable
and also a healthier World environment
and peace are intrinsically interlinked
you damage one you damage the other but
on the flip side if you enhance one if
you protect one you enhance the other
yes a lot of these questions feel like
they sit with people far from this room
governments International organizations
multilateral development Banks yes they
need to step up to link up to pay up and
we need to hold them account to do that
but we also have choices and our choices
have consequences
what you consume who you consume it from
where you Bank where you put your
pension pot what who you decide to vote
for at the next election your choices
send signals which can change Behavior
it is possible to build an environment
of Peace but we need to act now and we
need to act for the long term
it is possible to build a more just and
peaceful transition if we choose that
it's worth it if we choose to make it
happen
thank you
[Applause]