UN climate chief warns political division is undermining fight against ‘economic security emergency’

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The head of the UN’s climate body has warned that treating global warming as a partisan issue is dangerously out of step with reality, as he set out a stark account of the economic toll climate change is already inflicting on Europe.

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told the European Parliament’s environment committee in Brussels on Thursday that climate change had become “a continent-wide economic security emergency,” pointing to a summer of extreme heat that has killed tens of thousands and battered infrastructure, businesses and economies across Europe.

Climate ‘culture war’

“Climate is sometimes seen as a partisan issue: as territory in culture wars,” Mr. Stiell said. “That is palpably false.”

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He said the summer’s heat had forced mass evacuations, shut down power stations, disrupted trade routes and driven down crop yields, pushing food prices higher still to come. 

Elsewhere, he cited devastating floods in the Himalayas and heat-driven power outages and water shortages in North Africa, warning that climate impacts were increasingly fuelling forced migration both within and across borders.

One study, he said, put the cost of this summer’s extreme weather to Europe at 180 billion euros in lost productivity and disruption to food, energy and transport – equivalent to wiping out a full percentage point of GDP, roughly the amount the EU economy is forecast to grow this year.

Mr. Stiell linked those costs directly to fossil fuel dependency, warning of another looming winter fuel crisis for European households and businesses.

Don’t be soft

“To be soft on climate action is to be soft on inflation and the cost of living, soft on sovereignty and security, and soft on economic growth and jobs,” he said.

He argued the clean energy transition offered Europe a way out. Renewables now supply around half of the continent’s power, he said, and solar generation alone saved Europe more than 30 billion euros in avoided gas imports during the first six months of the Middle East conflict. 

Worldwide, clean energy investment reached over two trillion dollars last year, he added – double that of fossil fuels.

Getting heated

Without international climate cooperation, Mr. Stiell warned, the world would be heading for global warming well above four degrees Celsius; with it, current policies point to a rise of 2.6 degrees – still far above the 1.5 degree limit agreed by nations back in 2015. 

A recent UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report found that limit will be breached, though only temporarily, he said, if the world takes concerted action to bring temperatures back down.

Mr. Stiell called on the European Union to help deliver progress at the COP31 conference later this year, to be hosted by Türkiye, saying the priority was implementation rather than reopening past agreements. 

He pointed to methane reduction, food security and urban resilience as areas of shared urgency.

“We live in a polarized age,” he said. “But inflation is a common enemy, security is a common cause. Health, jobs, community and prosperity matter to us all. And every one of them demands action on climate.”