A series of draft reports released by NATO member politicians warns
of the growing threat from climate change to peace and security in the
Middle East and Africa, and urges all nations to stick to their Paris
Agreement commitments.
Climate change risks exacerbating food and water shortages in the
region triggering more conflict and mass migration that would have
“serious security implications for the wider world”, according to one of
the draft reports, which is set to be discussed at NATO’s Parliamentary
Assembly in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 27 May.
Lawmakers from nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are
warning that global warming will lead to mass migration and conflict in
the Middle East and Africa, another reason President Donald Trump should
stay in the Paris climate deal.
Climate change will lead to “dire” food and water shortages in the
region, according to a draft report presented today to
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Acting as the “ultimate threat multiplier” after decades of resource
mismanagement in the region, extreme weather and rising seas would
likely lead to volatile food prices and increased competition, according
to the report by Osman Askin, a member of the Turkish Parliament.
His country is host to more than 3 million refugees and asylum
seekers, according to the report, and the surge in migration in Europe
in recent years was a key reason for the U.K. voting to leave the
European Union. Migration was an important plank of Trump’s presidential
campaign last year, and he pledged to build a wall along the 1,900-mile
(3,050-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico border.
The report, to be discussed this week in the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly, urges all 146 countries that have ratified the Paris Agreement
to “live up to their pledges,” including providing climate finance for
developing countries.
Trump, who will attend his first meeting with leaders of the Group of
Seven Countries this week, has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the
Paris Accord, end climate financing and is reviewing the Clean Power
Plan — a key policy for cutting pollution introduced by his predecessor
Barack Obama. He’s postponed a decision and it’s now expected by the end
of May.
The report adds to pressure from Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her
husband Jared Kushner, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who
have been urging the president to remain in the Paris deal. Several of
Trump’s top advisers are pushing for an exit, including chief strategist
Stephen Bannon and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott
Pruitt.
The 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was formed in
1949 during the Cold War, has invoked the collective defense article
only once – after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that
leveled the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York, Trump’s
hometown.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/global-warming-will-lead-mass-migration-says-nato/