It is a great pleasure and honour for UNEP/MAP to have been invited to cooperate in the organization of this event within the framework of the Greek Chairmanship of the Human Security Network. Cooperation between UNEP/MAP and Greece goes back more than 20 years when Greece offered to host the Mediterranean Action Plan, the first Regional Seas Programme of UNEP. Today UNEP/MAP represents the biggest presence in Greece
Today’s event on climate change as it relates to human security is very timely coming as it does a few days after the publication of the report for policy makers issued by the IPCC in Valencia, Spain and one week before the Conference in Bali that will discuss the next step in combating climate change after the commitments for the stabilization of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The message that comes across loud and clear from the 4th IPCC Report is that the effects of climate change are now unequivocal. Climate change is here and is getting worse. According to the Secretary General of the UN “the potential impact of global warming is so severe and so sweeping that only urgent, global action will do”.
It is now acknowledged without any doubt that the major cause of climate change is human activity. Even those who up to a few years ago were not convinced that humans were having an impact on the climate, now admit that scientific evidence exists that this is happening. This evidence is the measured warming of air and excess temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising sea levels.
These changes will cause great human suffering and pose a risk to economic development and social and political stability. Climate change will cause natural disasters, food shortages, and displacement of peoples. In addition, the impact of climate change will significantly amplify already existing threats to the point where they might trigger instability and violent conflicts.
There is a wide variation in the ability of countries to cope with and adapt to the negative impact of climate change. Developed countries will come up with mechanisms although costly to cope with this impact including moving populations from danger zones, adapt agriculture and industry, and general other means to minimize the inconveniences caused by climate change to society, economy and the political system.
Countries that are already facing poverty, social and political instability, will be much more susceptible to the negative consequences of climate change because on the one hand they possess only few means to prepare to counter the impact of climate change and on the other hand they are already suffering from a variety of threats that will be made even worse from climate change including poverty droughts, land degradation, desertification, diseases, etc.
UNEP’s recently published Global Environmental Outlook points out that climate change will have significant and long-lasting impact on human well being and development. It will hinder efforts to meet basic development needs such as those identified in the Millennium Development Goals.
All is not gloom and doom,. According to this year’s UNDP Report on Human Development “There is a window of opportunity of avoiding the most damaging climate change impacts, but that window is closing: the world has less than a decade to change course. Actions taken or not taken in the years ahead will have a profound bearing on the future course of human development. The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act. What is missing is a sense of urgency, collective interest and above all human solidarity.
Developing countries need help. Their feeling of insecurity is the result of their lack of capacity and resources to face the negative impacts of climate change. At an International Solidarity Conference organized last week by Tunisia on Climate Change Strategies for African and Mediterranean Regions, Ministers of Environment from these regions called upon developed countries and financial institutions for assistance in elaborating mitigation and adaptation strategies and in establishing and implementing concrete projects and plans of action. They alone cannot fight the impacts of climate change.
The international community should respond to these appeals for solidarity thus contributing to human security in the face of the impacts of climate change. The major threat to human security is not military conflict but climate change.
Once again I would like to congratulate Greece for focusing on climate change and human security during its chairmanship of the Human Security Network.
I thank you for your attention.