Climate crisis is security issue, Ed Miliband says

Britain's foreign minister Ed Miliband said climate change should be treated as a security issue for prime ministers, foreign ministers and generals, not only as a cause for environmental campaigners.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of Climate Week NYC as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly's high-level week, Miliband said disruptions to fossil fuel supply after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the United States' war in Iran showed what he called the energy independence case for clean energy.

Miliband said climate and nature should be built into national security systems and threat assessments. He also said countries should share information because a shock in one country can spread through supply chains, financial markets and migration patterns.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said clean energy accounted for more than half of Australia's grid at the peak of the last Australian summer and said there was no avoiding the cost of inaction.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has convened a summit on Wednesday ahead of the COP31 climate talks, due to be held in Turkey in November with Australia steering negotiations.

Turkish Climate Minister Murat Kurum said COP31 would address concerns over artificial intelligence and its carbon footprint, and would press technology companies to be transparent about energy use and power operations with clean energy.

The International Renewable Energy Agency said the world added a record 693 gigawatts of renewable power in 2025. UN climate chief Simon Stiell called that a sign that market forces are making the clean energy transition irreversible, but the global goal of tripling renewable energy by 2030 would still require more than doubling today's levels.

Later, Kurum chaired a UN meeting on how to shift from setting climate targets to implementing them at COP31 in Antalya. Selwin Hart, special adviser and assistant secretary-general for climate action at the United Nations, said the test was what changes on the ground.