UN Security Council Arria Formula Meeting Stepping up Preventive Action: From Environmental Challenges to Opportunities for Peace
Guangzhou Qu, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York
08/07/2024
Thank you, Mr President.
- Climate change undermines agrifood systems, jeopardizes livelihoods, makes land and water scarcer, reduces biodiversity, and compromises the environment.
- This can increase competition and conflict over natural resources, cause human and livestock mobility and push the most vulnerable to the brink of starvation.
- Ultimately, food producers bear the brunt of impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and land degradation, as they rely on natural resources for their livelihood and income.
- Furthermore, the consequences of climate change are not gender-neutral, with women taking on more work for less income in weather extremes.
- We must recognize that investments in agriculture are not only an integral part of the solution to the climate crisis, they can also help prevent competition and conflict over natural resources.
- This is why FAO has been working closely with humanitarian, development and peace actors to:
- undertake joint analyses,
- strengthen early warning systems,
- promote climate services,
- scale up anticipatory action,
- support local solutions, and
- empower women to have agency.
- Let me conclude by sharing four recommendations:
- One, support climate-related early warning systems and climate services that integrate conflict dynamics to advance evidence-based risk analysis.
- Two, replicate specialized climate, peace and security advisor roles in UN missions and regional hubs for analyses, information sharing and coordination.
- Three, foster trust, mutual understanding and inclusive dialogue, by empowering women, in discussions around sustainable natural resource management, environmental protection and climate adaptation.
- Four, invest in climate-resilient agrifood systems and related infrastructure – including in fragile and conflict-affected contexts – drawing on disaster risk reduction and community-based resilience approaches.
Thank you.