Britain and China faced off on Tuesday in the first-ever U.N. Security Council debate on climate change, with Beijing saying the 15-member body had no competence in dealing with global warming.
But British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, who chaired the meeting, argued that the potential for climate change to cause wars had to move from the fringes of the debate to the Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body.
”Our responsibility in this council is to maintain international peace and security, including the prevention of conflict,” said Beckett, whose country holds the current council presidency. ”An unstable climate will exacerbate some of the core drivers of conflict -- such as migratory pressures and competition for resources.”
She noted that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, whose economy depends on hydropower from a reservoir depleted by drought, had called climate change ”an act of aggression by the rich against the poor.”
”He is one of the first leaders to see this problem in security terms. He will not be the last,” she said in the day-long debate with 52 countries participating.
But China’s deputy ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, was blunt in rejecting the session: ”The developing countries believe that Security Council has neither the professional competence in handling climate change -- nor is it the right decision-making place for extensive participation leading up to widely acceptable proposals.”
No resolution is expected and Russia, China, Qatar, Indonesia and South Africa, among others, also warned that the council, whose mandate is only peace and security, was not the place to take concrete action.
So did Pakistan on behalf of 130 developing nations, although many, such as Peru and Panama and small island states, agreed with Britain. Their main argument against the debate is that the council was encroaching on more democratic bodies, such as the 192-member U.N. General Assembly.
U.S. POSITION
But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supported the debate, which Beckett called ”a groundbreaking day in the history of the Security Council.”
”Projected changes in the earth’s climate are thus not only an environmental concern,” Ban said. ”And -- as the council points up today -- issues of energy and climate change can have implications for peace and security.”
The United States, the world’s larger emitter of greenhouse gases that spur climate change, opposes mandatory caps on emissions but a focus instead on alternative fuels and energy efficiency.
”The developing world, we and others, must deal with this issue in a manner that does not affect ... growth and development,” acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said.
Most industrial nations, including the European Union, agreed with Britain. As did Papua New Guinea, head of the Pacific small island states, which fear they may disappear under the waves as the Earth warms up.
”The dangers that the small island states and their populations face are no less serious than those nations threatened by guns and bombs,” Papua New Guinea Ambassador Robert Guba Aisi told the council.
Italy’s deputy foreign minister, Vittorio Craxi, said members should support Ban’s effort to create a new U.N. Environmental Organization, in an effort to coordinate action on climate change.
Currently, the United Nations has had nearly 400 meeting days a year on biodiversity, climate change, desertification and related subjects with over 30 agencies and programs involved in environmental projects.
”It is clear that climate change can pose threats to national security,” Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said. ”In the foreseeable future climate change may well create conditions or induce circumstances that could precipitate or aggravate international conflicts.”
