افزایش قیمت مواد غذایی و کاهش تولید در حال تبدیل شدن به یک دلیل جدی برای وقوع ناآرامی در سطح دنیا است و نگرانی ها پیرامون تشدید این شرایط به دلیل تغییرات اقلیمی در حال افزایش است. مقام ارشد سازمان ملل در حوزه تغییرات اقلیمی هشدار داده است که در صورت عدم تحقق یک اقدام جدی برای مبارزه با شرایط فعلی، ممکن است درگیری های منطقه ای در سطح جهان رخ بدهد. 

“It is alarming to admit that if the community of nations is unable to fully stabilize climate change, it will threaten where we can live, where and how we grow food and where we can find water,” said Ms. Figueres, a veteran Costa Rican diplomat and environmental advocate. “In other words, it will threaten the basic foundation – the very stability on which humanity has built its existence.”

“On a global level, increasingly unpredictable weather patterns will lead to falling agricultural production and higher food prices, leading to food insecurity,” she said in her address. “In Africa, crop yields could decline by as much as 50 percent by 2020. Recent experiences around the world clearly show how such situations can cause political instability and undermine the performance of already fragile states.”

“All these factors taken together,” Ms. Figueres concluded, “mean that climate change, especially if left unabated, threatens to increase poverty and overwhelm the capacity of governments to meet the basic needs of their people, which could well contribute to the emergence, spread and longevity of conflict.”