The effects of climate change threaten to further escalate problems in regions that are already unstable or in conflict, warned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday.
"It is clear that climate change and environmental mismanagement are risk multipliers where coping capacities are limited," he told a high-level UN Security Council meeting on climate and security.
Dependence on dwindling resources, such as water, could exacerbate tensions on the ground, he said, but added that these problems could be counteracted through measures taken by the council and others.
"Climate adaptation and peace-building can and should reinforce each other," he said.
Various members of the powerful UN body have taken up the issue in the past, for example by trying to implement an early warning system for conflicts caused by the climate crisis, among other actions.
However, there has so far not been enough support in the council.
Climate change is also causing crop failures in many places, Guterres added at a later event about combatting world hunger.
At the same time, food production systems worldwide contribute about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions.
"We must build a world where healthy and nutritious food is available and affordable for everyone, everywhere," he said.
The UN chief said three billion people worldwide could not afford healthy food and around 462 million people were underweight - while at the same time two billion people were overweight and nearly a third of all food was lost or thrown away.
