UN warns environment threats 'greatest challenge to human rights of our era'

The UN rights chief warned Monday that environmental threats from pollution and climate change were sparking and deepening conflicts worldwide, and will soon constitute the biggest challenge to human rights.

"The interlinked crises of pollution, climate change and biodiversity act as threat multipliers, amplifying conflicts, tensions and structural inequalities, and forcing people into increasingly vulnerable situations," Michelle Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council, warning that "as these environmental threats intensify, they will constitute the single greatest challenge to human rights of our era."