Unchecked climate change could cause a flood of new environmental migrants to Europe. It is a "threat multiplier" which "intensifies existing trends, tensions, and instability,” apprehends a report by European Union foreign-policy chief Javier Solana and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations.
Reacting to the report, Dirk Messner, director of the German Advisory Council on Global Change, said, "There's really a new approach and perspective developing…Climate change has been addressed until very recently as an environmental problem. ... But dangerous climate change, beyond 2 degrees or so, will result in a destabilization processes around the world."
In 2007, the Solana report notes, all but one of the emergencies for which the UN appealed for humanitarian aid had climate dimensions. And new trading routes are opening in the Arctic as the polar ice caps melt, shifting the balance of power in the region.
The report echoes a widely cited 2007 study by 11 retired American admirals and generals issued by CNA Corporation, a Virginia think tank, points out Nicole Itano, writing in Christian Science Monitor.
In the circumstances, the stark warning from such high-ranking EU officials is likely to invigorate the debate in Europe about the links between climate and security -- as well as highlight the urgency of coming to some sort of global agreement on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Europe, experts say, is not likely to experience climate-related instability within its own territory -- the brunt of the impact of global warming is likely to fall on the world's poor. But on the Continent's borders are regions, such as North Africa and the Middle East, that are both political fragile and acutely vulnerable to climate change.