UNI

New Delhi, Apr 23: Climate change can lead to global conflicts as devastating as the past two world wars but lasting for centuries, a report said on Wednesday.

The study  by the Royal United Services Institute warned that countries underestimated the potential conflicts stemming from climate change and must invest heavily to correct the mistake.

The response to the threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had been 'slow and inadequate,' because nations failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario, the report -- Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate-Changed World -- stated.

A tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, would be needed if the world was to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures, the Telegraph quoted author Nick Mabey as saying.

''Climate impacts will force us into a radical rethink of how we identify and secure our national interests,'' he said, adding, ''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.'