Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars

London, April 23 : Defence experts have warned that climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars, which would last for centuries unless the problem is controlled.

According to the Telegraph, the Royal United Services Institute, UK, issued a report that said a tenfold increase in energy research spending to around 10 billion pounds a year would be needed if the world were to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures.

Nick Mabey, the author of the report, said that leading economies should be preparing for what would happen if climate change turned out to be at the top of the predicted temperature range.

"If climate change is not slowed and critical environmental thresholds are exceeded, it will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states," he said.

However, the group said that the response to threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had so far been "slow and inadequate," because nations had failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

"We're preparing for a car bomb, not for 9/11," said Nick Mabey, who was also a former senior member of the Prime Minister's (UK) strategy unit.

"Our energy and climate security will increasingly depend on stronger alliances with other large energy consumers, such as China, to develop and deploy new energy technologies, and less on relations with oil producing states," he added.

ANI