Countries planning to strengthen their national security through increased spending must ramp up their climate efforts or face more wars in the future, warned Ana Toni, Chief Executive of COP30 summit.

Suggesting that some counties could include climate spending in their defense budgets, Toni told The Guardian, “Climate change is an accelerator of inequalities and poverty, and we know that the consequences of inequality and poverty can turn into wars in the future”. “The fight against climate change needs to be seen as something that’s not divorced from the big security issue of humanity,” she added.

The COP30 conference is scheduled to take place Belem, Amazon in November 2025. With rising geopolitical tensions, many developed countries including EU member states and the UK, are increasing defence spending in response to threats like US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and his warning on foreign policy.

Toni cautioned that countries must not reduce their climate efforts to combat the climate crisis by making a choice between defence and climate, as it would impact their long-term security.

“Wars come and go. Unfortunately, climate change is there for a long time. We need to take climate change very seriously, otherwise we will have even more wars in the future. So that trade-off between short-term defence needs now, versus the long-term need to prevent this bigger fight on climate change, is absolutely needed,” said Toni.