Global security crisis and COP31: a duty to accelerate phasing out fossil fuels

AI Summary

The article argues that breaching planetary boundaries and accelerating climate disruption threaten human security through ecosystem collapse, food and water shortages, geopolitical instability and conflict. It urges governments and COP31 to accelerate the phaseout of fossil fuels, citing climate-related risks highlighted by UK and US security assessments.

Seven of the nine planetary boundaries on which we rely to make the earth habitable have been breached, according to the 2026 planetary health check. This breach is the worst ever recorded.1 The effect of surpassing these vital climate tipping points is already being felt everywhere by nature and humanity. The environmental consequences of further breaching these planetary boundaries are unknown, posing a security risk that several European governments are taking seriously.2Earlier this year, a UK national security assessment detailed the high risk consequences of the collapse of global ecosystems and biodiversity loss. These include food shortages, water scarcity, geopolitical insecurity, and conflict.34 In 2021, before the US government became dominated by fossil fuel interests and climate denialism, the US Department of Defence noted that the “unprecedented scale of wildfires, floods, droughts, typhoons, and other extreme weather events . . . contributed to instability around the world” and created substantial...