UK Foreign Secretary Warns Climate Crisis Threatens Global National Security at Cop31

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is warning world leaders gathered at the Cop31 United Nations climate summit in Antalya that the climate crisis presents a direct risk to the national security of all nations. Miliband arrived in Turkey on Tuesday evening for the leaders’ summit segment of the two-week talks, which run through Thursday.

Addressing the summit on Wednesday, Miliband is scheduled to state that security and defence objectives represent the new frontier for climate action. According to his remarks, rapid planetary heating will cause food shortages, widespread economic disruption, population migration, and conflict. He intends to tell attendees that scenarios previously confined to science fiction are now regular occurrences in daily news.

Miliband points to fossil fuel economic shocks, citing soaring oil prices following the start of the Iran conflict that have driven inflation and interest rate hikes by central banks. He argues that the world must confront the consequences of failing to reduce carbon emissions over the past thirty years, noting that a temporary overshoot of the 1.5C global heating threshold above preindustrial levels is now inevitable after temperatures exceeded that benchmark for two consecutive years.

The ongoing Cop31 leaders' segment is being opened by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Other scheduled speakers include United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Several leaders of major nations are not attending this year's conference, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German leader Friedrich Merz, though European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is slated to participate. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is also expected to arrive on Wednesday for bilateral meetings.

In comments ahead of his address, Miliband criticized political opponents who seek to abandon efforts aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, asserting that such positions endanger national security. He emphasizes that the climate breakdown represents one of the most significant security threats facing nations globally, driving hardship for billions of people.