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Climate change is already exacerbating national and international conflicts, and governments must take steps to ensure that this does not worsen, said the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Peter Maurer told Guardian Australia that its impact had already been achieved and that humanitarian organizations had to take this into account in their work well ahead of schedule.
"In many parts of the world where we work, it's not a long-term commitment," he said.
"When I think of our engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa, Somalia and elsewhere in the world, I see that climate change has already had a huge impact on population movements and land fertility. This moves the border between pastoralists and farmers. "
Maurer, who was in Australia to talk about the changing nature of modern conflict, said the concern about the impact of climate change in the Pacific was "huge."
He added that the evolution of rainfall patterns is changing the fertility of the land and pushing populations, who have settled and survived in a region for centuries, to migrate.
"It is very clear that some of the violence we observe … is directly related to the impact of climate change and changes in rainfall patterns."
Earlier this month, the UN climate group, the IPCC, gave only 12 years to the world to make the radical but necessary changes. Its report indicates that emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030 if warming is to be limited to 1.5 ° C.
Sea-level rise would affect 10 million fewer people and the proportion of the world population exposed to water stress could be reduced by 50%.
A study conducted in 2016, which covered three decades of data, showed that an increase of 1 ° C in a country dependent on agriculture was correlated with a 5% increase in migration to from other countries.
"When [populations] start migrating in large numbers, this creates tensions between migrant communities and local communities. This is very visible in contexts such as the Central African Republic, Mali and other countries, "said Maurer.
He said it was the responsibility of governments, not humanitarian workers, to develop the policies needed to tackle the "root causes" of climate change.
"As a humanitarian, I'm used to political decisions … never [being] as fast as we wish, or as generous or as big, but it is encouraging that a growing number of people recognize the importance of the issue and are taking steps to reduce the impact of the Climate change on our habitat – the Paris Agreement is an important step forward, he says.
"For us, we hope that the international community will soon take the necessary measures, so that in the end, it will not have to pay to increase the humanitarian impact, which we are already seeing in other conflicts. "
Donald Trump has spoken little about the IPCC report, after already being committed to withdrawing the United States from the Paris agreement.
Ola Elvestuen, Norwegian Minister for the Environment, said last month, while calling on countries to stop using fossil fuels, adopt the electric car and put an end to deforestation.
The Australian government largely rejected the IPCC report and its recommendations – which included the rapid elimination of coal – as well as the arguments of the Pacific Island nations.
Australia does not have a formal energy or climate change policy, and the coalition government has at one point the option of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.
MPs and ministers maintain that Australia is on track to meet emissions reduction targets, despite official government emissions figures suggesting that Australia will not do so, according to current projections.
On Sunday, Australian Treasurer and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg rejected the suggestion that his government should rethink its policies. He added that the government did not intend to "reduce emissions to the detriment of citizens' electricity bills".
Anote Tong, the former president of Kiribati, was in Australia this week asking for action.
"It is not a question of the marginal increase of the price or the reduction of the price of the energy, it is of the life, it is of the future", he told Guardian Australia.
Maurer said that there were now more displaced people than ever before, approaching 70 million around the world. Two-thirds are internally displaced persons and most of those who fled will go to a neighboring country.
"At the end of the day, there is no one-size-fits-all policy for addressing these issues, but there are many things that can be done," he said.
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