Climate Change Takes Center Stage at Annual Global Security Conference

International leaders and UN officials gathered for a global security conference in Munich over the weekend warned that climate change is one of the biggest threats to international security, drastically increasing the risk of armed conflict.

In his address to the annual Munich Security Conference, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres listed global warming and population growth as the top two “megatrends” threatening world stability. He also stressed the importance of global climate action. “The commitment of the international community to stick to the Paris Agreement and to be more ambitious… is absolutely essential,” he said.

The remarks follow statements by the Trump administration that it may pull the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. secretaries of defense and homeland security, James Mattis and John Kelly, all attended this year’s meeting, according to Bloomberg News