Climate change is a threat to international security, France's influential Environment Minister Segolene Royal warned Saturday — adopting an unusually hawkish stance as she heads to the U.S. to push for a global deal on reducing emissions at a landmark Paris conference this year.
She will have to push especially hard in Washington, but she relishes the challenge. Royal, longtime former partner of President Francois Hollande and one of France's most experienced female politicians, is playing a key role ahead of U.N. climate talks in Paris in December.
Amid skepticism in the Republican-led U.S. Congress about the science of climate change and resistance to a legally binding treaty, President Barack Obama also recently argued that rising sea levels and resource shortages could threaten the readiness of U.S. forces and aggravate instability around the globe.
"If everyone realizes ... that the cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of action, then I think we can convince some members of Congress who are still reticent," Royal told The Associated Press in an interview in Paris on Saturday.
She said Obama was "right" to use the national security argument, one rarely in heard in Europe, where people largely accept humanity's responsibility for global warming.
"The climate question is also at the heart of the security question," Royal said, noting in particular the growing number of refugees fleeing climatic disasters and chronic shortages.
For the complete article, please see AP Newsarchive.
South Asia’s vulnerability to climate change and associated fragility risks calls for a regional approach to climate services. Different actors need to cooperate to share actionable climate information—the security architecture in the region would benefit.
With cities continuously more threatened by climate change-induced disasters, urban planning’s reflex response is to protect cities against nature. But what if the solution lies in working with nature instead against it? Architect Kongjiang Yu invites readers to imagine what cities could look like if they took into account ancient wisdom on spatial planning.
During the past two weeks, Antigua & Barbuda, Nicaragua and Panama ratified the Escazú Agreement, giving a major boost to the unprecedented and innovative Latin American pact that seeks to reduce social conflicts and protect frontline communities in the world’s deadliest region for environmental defenders.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres outlined priorities for the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 26) during a briefing at UN Headquarters. The briefing was hosted by the UK, which will be assuming the COP 26 presidency in partnership with Italy. COP 26 is scheduled to convene from 9-20 November 2020, in Glasgow, UK.