THE Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reported in January that the world now faces two existential threats: nuclear weapons and climate change. 

It moved its Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight; even at the height of the cold war it was never closer.

President Donald Trump in the White House makes the world a more dangerous place. 

Trump has abandoned international treaties from the Paris Agreement on climate change to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.  

He has shown contempt for multinational regulatory bodies such as the United Nations, which, two years ago, agreed a new treaty for the global prohibition of nuclear weapons. 

A world without nuclear weapons is the long-stated goal of the Labour Party, and the UN treaty changes the premise for any discussion about the best tactics when Britain seeks to remove its nuclear arsenal. 

While the majority of the world’s states, obviously non-nuclear states, have shown notable tenacity in seeking to create a new international legal framework for nuclear disarmament, Trump’s increased emphasis on threats of war includes ploughing over $1 trillion (£800 billion) into nuclear weapons development. 

He’s putting pressure on his Nato allies, including Britain, to fall in behind him.

Liam Fox recently said the Iran deal is dead and we should beef up sanctions. 

Trump’s new set of sanctions on Tehran, imposed following the recent drone attacks on Saudi oilfields, will absolutely devastate the Iranian economy. They are already hitting ordinary Iranians. This will be a humanitarian disaster.

In such a global context, we need a Labour government committed to a foreign policy approach which respects human rights and seeks conflict resolution rather than war. 

Fortunately, with Jeremy Corbyn as a prospective prime minister, we have someone with a long record of commitment to peace and disarmament who can show leadership in foreign policy unparalleled by his predecessors, and at a time when it couldn’t be more urgent. 

Labour has a commitment to “lead multilateral efforts with international partners and the UN to create a nuclear-free world.”   

This surely means that a Labour government would sign and then ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The Doomsday Clock’s alarming position is reflected in the global clamour for action to stave off our real security threats — witnessed most recently last Friday when millions of people across the world joined schoolchildren in protesting at climate change. 

From strikes to direct action to policy motions being passed on a green new deal, the myriad actions of the climate justice movement follow the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s tradition of using the most diverse campaigning tactics to defend human civilisation in the face of existential threats.

Labour needs to respond to this increasingly dangerous world. The party has heeded the climate justice movement by introducing radical policies and is devoting Tuesday of its conference to debating some radical proposals in relation to emissions targets and the delivery of hundreds of thousands of climate jobs.  

This welcome emphasis must include an understanding of the carbon footprint of war and the defence sector. 

Labour needs to emphasise the value of international co-operation to address the climate emergency and reject the stoking of the fires of nuclear conflict.

More than £205 billion is being spent on the replacement of Trident. When we face a climate emergency, such expenditure is inconsistent with the priorities of the emergency.  

A Labour government committed to a world without nuclear weapons would need to reverse this policy — a YouGov poll released at the weekend shows that over 70 per cent of party members support scrapping Trident. 

This is particularly important as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is getting nearer to coming into force as a legal treaty.

The climate emergency and the nuclear dangers must be seen as interlinked if we are to understand the seriousness of our global security threats and the existential risks that the current policy of governments are leading us towards.  

However, in terms of their effects on economic and industrial policy in Britain, the two issues are as inextricably linked in their diagnosis of our industrial and economic failings, and in the path to solutions, particularly in relation to employment — commonly referred to as a “just transition.”

Securing jobs for defence workers is best achieved by the establishment of a shadow defence diversification agency as part of a national industrial strategy, which must encourage workers and communities to take the lead in a broad partnership of all stakeholders. 

The TUC has agreed to lobby the Labour Party to establish such an agency. 

We need to get trade unions and members on board with a shadow defence diversification agency which protects skilled jobs by providing for alternatives that use an equivalent skill set, offer security of employment and are socially and environmentally sustainable.

The defence industry is increasingly capital intensive and employment is in long-term decline, so urgent attention is needed to ensure skilled, secure and well-paid employment for defence workers.

A just transition to a sustainable economy with full employment requires the same policy approach, whether the transition is from the fossil-fuel economy or the carbon-intensive defence sector.

Only by linking the climate crisis to Britain’s unsustainable pretensions as a military and nuclear power can a Labour government deliver the peace policies to save the planet from the biggest risks it faces.

Daniel Blaney is a Labour Party member.