G8 Identifies Climate Change as Contributing Factor to Security Risks
11 April 2013: Foreign Ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) met in London, UK, from 10-11 April 2013, to address a number of international issues, challenges and opportunities that impact on global peace, security and prosperity. The joint statement adopted at the conclusion of the meeting addresses, among other issues, climate change.
In the joint statement, Foreign Ministers highlight climate change as a key global remaining challenge and a contributing factor to increased economic and security risks. They acknowledge that international climate policy and sustainable economic development are mutually reinforcing, and agree that officials from interested G8 countries meet to consider "the potential consequences of climate change and associated environmental and resource stresses as a contributing factor to increased security risks globally."
Foreign Ministers reiterate their commitment to, inter alia: limiting the increase in global average temperature below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels; increasing mitigation ambition in the pre-2020 timeframe, including through international cooperative initiatives, such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC); and contributing to the developed countries' goal of jointly mobilizing USD 100 billion per year by 2020, from a wide variety of public and private sources, in the context of "meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation." They further emphasize the relevance of transparency in the UNFCCC process, as well as of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) for mitigation, adaptation and international climate finance flows.