The Security Council on July 20 expressed concern that the possible adverse effects of climate change could, in the long-run, aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security and that the loss of territory in some States due to sea-level rise, particularly in small low-lying island States, could have possible security implications.
In a statement read out by Council President for July, Peter Wittig of Germany, the 15-member body, following a day-long debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: The Impact of Climate Change”, noted that “conflict analysis and contextual information” on, among others, the “possible security implications of climate change” was important when climate issues drove conflict, challenged implementation of Council mandates or endangered peace processes.
In that context, the 15-member body asked the Secretary-General to ensure that his reporting to the Council contained such contextual information. Moreover, the Council recognized the responsibility for climate change and other sustainable development issues conferred upon the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, and it underlined the Assembly’s 2009 resolution that reaffirmed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the key instrument for addressing climate change.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who opened the Council debate, pointed to the devastating impact of extreme weather and rising seas on lives, infrastructure and budgets – an “unholy brew” that could create dangerous security vacuums. “We must make no mistake,” he said. “The facts are clear: climate change is real and accelerating in a dangerous manner,” he said, declaring that it “not only exacerbates threats to international peace and security; it is a threat to international peace and security”.
Events in Pakistan, the Pacific islands, Western Europe, China and the Horn of Africa, among other areas, illustrated the urgency of the situation, he said, adding that just today (July 20), the United Nations had declared a state of famine in two regions of southern Somalia. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of people were in danger of food and water shortages. Environmental refugees were “reshaping the human geography” of the planet.
He called for ambitious steps to reduce climate change and make “sustainable development for all” the defining issue of our time. That meant, among other things, expediting implementation of the agreements made during the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico, including on forest protection, adaptation and technology; providing “fast start” financing and agreement on sources of long-term funding; and setting ambitious targets to ensure that any increase in the global average temperature remained below 2°C.
Climate change was a “threat multiplier”, asserted Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and that, he said, would have fundamental implications for weather, settlements, infrastructure, food insecurity, livelihoods and development. Competition over scarce water and land, exacerbated by regional changes in climate, was already a key factor in local conflicts in Darfur, the Central African Republic, northern Kenya and Chad.
As many as 10 Council-mandated peacekeeping operations costing $ 35 billion – half of the global peacekeeping budget – had been deployed to countries where natural resources had played a key role in conflict, he said. Science showed that the quantity and quality of those resources would be at increasing risk from climate change and that broad, cooperative action was needed to prevent irreversible tipping points, leading to sudden, abrupt shocks to communities and countries.
“Indeed there is no reason why the international community cannot avoid escalating conflicts, tensions and insecurity related to a changing climate if a deliberate, focused and collective response can be catalyzed that tackles the root causes, scale, potential volatility and velocity of the challenges emerging,” he said, citing recent efforts towards that end.
Speaking on behalf of the Pacific small island developing States, the Maldives, Seychelles and Timor-Leste, Marcus Stephen, President of Nauru, said the very survival of many countries was threatened by the adverse impacts of climate change. Some islands could disappear altogether, forcing large numbers of peoples to relocate – first internally and then across borders. While Council members understood such security challenges, solidarity demanded more than sympathetic words. “Demonstrate it by formally recognizing that climate change is a threat to international peace and security,” he said, calling climate change as great a threat as nuclear proliferation or terrorism.
The Council, he insisted, should start by requesting the appointment of a special representative on climate and security, as well as an assessment of the United Nations capacity to respond to the security impacts of the phenomenon. The Council would render itself irrelevant if it chose to ignore the biggest security threat of our time, he said, imploring it to “seize this opportunity to lead”.
Echoing those concerns was Richard Marles, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, who said the sea, long a source of food, sustenance and comfort, was being transformed into a source of anxiety and threat. Sea-level rise could reach one metre by the end of the century, resulting in more severe storm surges, coastal inundation and loss of territory. Islands and low-lying territories might become inhabitable, and as much of 80 per cent of the Marshall Islands’ Majuro Atoll, the nation’s capital, could erode and be lost.
During the debate, in which some 65 speakers took the floor, delegates gave opposing views over whether the Council should consider climate change or leave it to other United Nations organs traditionally charged with sustainable development matters, notably UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. Some representatives applauded the Council’s emerging role as a necessary complement. But others saw it as an encroachment, and said the Council members could better contribute by making good on their international development commitments, promoting the green economy and ensuring a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol with measurable and more ambitious goals on emissions reduction.
Bolivia’s representative went a step further, calling for creation of an international tribunal for climate and environmental justice to sanction those nations that did not comply with emission reduction commitments. He also proposed a Council resolution to cut global defence and security spending by 20 per cent and channel the subsequent savings into steps to tackle climate change.
Source: UN Security Council.
