Climate change is threat multiplier for instability globally

In a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in February 2021, naturalist David Attenborough called climate change the "the biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced". Much of the debate surrounding climate change focuses on the devastating effect of the increase in carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels and temperatures, soil erosion, deforestation and the toxification of nature.

All are major threats to populations and the fight against poverty around the world, leading to a potentially devastating and lasting effect for life on planet Earth. On cue, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a major new climate report in February, highlighting an unavoidable increase in risks in the coming years, with the next several tenths of a degree of warming being critical.

Climate change and national security