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8307th Security Council Meeting: Maintenance of International Peace and Security
The Security Council, convening today to discuss the nexus between climate change and conflicts around the globe, considered several concrete proposals to guide the 15-member organ’s efforts — or those of other United Nations entities — on that evolving and increasingly critical issue.
Among other ideas, delegates proposed the appointment of a new Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Climate and Security, as well as the establishment of an “institutional home” or “hub” for the topic within the United Nations system. While speakers agreed that climate change and its impacts — including desertification, droughts, floods and food insecurity — all posed grave threats, they nevertheless diverged over the extent of the Council’s responsibility to address those phenomena, with some warning against expanding the organ’s mandate or encroaching on the jurisdiction of other bodies.
“It is clear that climate change is a real threat and is proceeding at a relentless pace,” said United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. Noting that the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 were the three warmest on record and carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, she emphasized that — while no country will be spared — the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people face the greatest risk. Having grown up in the Lake Chad Basin region of north-eastern Nigeria, she had seen the impact of climate change — a “multiplier” that puts additional stress on existing political, social and economic pressures — with her own eyes. In that regard, she said, the Council should view climate change as one of a web of factors that can lead to conflict.
Striking a similar tone, Hindou Ibrahim, speaking on behalf of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, urged Council members to address climate change as a security risk. In Africa’s Sahel region — where 90 per cent of the economy relies on agriculture and pastoralism — a heat wave and drought can immediately impact people’s lives, she said, adding that terrorist groups take advantage of increasing poverty to recruit the youngest and most fragile. Calling on the international community to invest in local people and their communities, she told members: “They do not have a choice, but you do.”
Hassan al-Janabi, Minister for Water Resources of Iraq, said today’s debate is a step forward regarding international responses to new and emerging challenges. Rising temperatures exacerbate other threats and risks, increasing their complexity and intensity while making it impossible for countries to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 global Goals. Describing escalating food insecurity, environmental havoc wreaked by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) and instances of competition for water resources across the region, he said such challenges are among the factors driving displaced persons and migrants to desperately seek better lives around the world.
Baron Divavesi Waqa, President of Nauru, spoke on behalf of the Group of Pacific Small Island Developing States, emphasizing: “There will be no return to a ‘normal’ climate in our lifetimes.” As climate change will be the defining issue of the next century, he called for the appointment of a “Special Representative on Climate and Security” in order to fill a critical gap in the United Nations system and provide the Council with the information it needs. “Let me be clear: The appointment of a [Special Representative of the Secretary-General] should not expand the Security Council’s mandate.” Instead, he or she will serve the Secretary-General.
Peru’s representative, spotlighting his country’s particular vulnerability to the impacts of climate change due largely to the retreat of its High Andes tropical glaciers and resulting floods, said the Council must strengthen and harmonize its coordination with those United Nations bodies and agencies charged with addressing the impacts of climate change, while fully respecting the mandates of those offices.
The representative of Côte d’Ivoire was among those speakers calling for United Nations bodies to go “beyond [their] usual divisions” in a more concerted effort to reverse the arc of climate change. Noting that the impact of climate change could create fertile ground for the activities of extremist groups, he said the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel regions symbolize the environmental challenges being faced across the entire African continent. Existing challenges across the continent’s most vulnerable regions are being exacerbated, he said, especially in places where Boko Haram and other criminal networks have taken root.
The Russian Federation’s delegate, underscoring the threat posed by climate change, nevertheless expressed concern that today’s meeting marked yet another attempt to link the issue of environmental conservation to international peace and security. “We are creating an illusion that the Council will tackle climate issues and that there will be some kind of turning point,” he added. Climate change is not a universal challenge to be addressed as a matter of international peace and security, and should instead be addressed within national borders and in the context of the appropriate United Nations agencies and departments, he said.
Also speaking were Government Ministers and other senior officials and representatives from Sweden, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, United States, France, China, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Poland, Kuwait, Maldives, Trinidad and Tobago and Sudan.
The meeting began at 10:11 a.m. and ended at 1:11 p.m.