UN/FILE: UK pushes the need to react to climate change in the U.N. Security Council, while Russia and China object

every country taking part in the first U.N. Security Council debate on global warming on Tuesday (April 17) agreed that the matter of climate change was the responsibility of the Council. While British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett emphasized the link between international peace and security and climate change, countries like Russia and China said that global warming should be handled by specialist organizations, not the U.N. Britain faced off with a number of countries including China, Russia and Sudan on Tuesday (April 17) 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 and Russia emphasizing that there were already other international frameworks and formats in place to tackle the issue. 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. "Charged as we (the U.N.) are with the maintenance of international peace and security, this council can make a unique contribution in the building of a shared understanding of what an unstable climate will mean for our individual and collective security. We can and I believe we must, because this council deals day in and day out with those very kinds of tensions and conflicts that an unstable climate will make yet more frequent and even more dangerous," said Beckett, whose country holds the current council presidency. 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." She told the council that Museveni is one of the first leaders to see this problem in security terms but that he would not be the last. 52 countries participated in the day long debate on climate change with countries like China, Russia and Sudan presenting a very different view point from the U.K, U.S., France and also the European Union. China's deputy ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, was blunt in rejecting the session and said that the developing countries believe that the 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. While Russia's ambassador to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin appealed to the Security Council to avoid panicking and overdramatizing the climate change situation. "I'd like to make an appeal - to avoid panicking and overdramatizing the situation, which doesn't help us reach a long-term universal agreements in this area. We believe that the world community must actively continue to work out measures to reduce the negative impact of man's activities on the global climate. In order to consider the problem of climate change in all of its aspects, including the analysis of new challenges and threats that arise in this area, appropriate international forums and formats exist already," said Churkin. 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. But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supported the call for the Security Council to make climate change its concern and Tuesday's debate, which Beckett called "a groundbreaking day in the history of the Security Council." "Extreme weather events and natural disasters such as floods and drought increase the risk of humanitarian emergencies and thus the risk of instability and dislocation. Migration driven by factors such as climate change could deepen tensions and conflicts particularly in regions with large numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees," said Ban. 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. Speaking on behalf of the EU, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that the EU was making concerted efforts to tackle global warming but that would not be enough and that its initiatives would need the assistance and involvement of the world community. : "The EU has decided to take the lead and to unilaterally reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2020 compared to the level of 1990, regardless of progress made in international negotiations for a post 2012 agreement. Yet since the the EU is responsible for 15% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of our reductions would only be limited. It is thus necessary to come to a global and comprehensive agreement on how to combat climate change beyond 2012," said Wieczorek-Zeul. Currently, the United Nations has had nearly 400 meeting days a year on biodiversity, climate change, decertification and related subjects with over 30 agencies and programs involved in environmental projects.

ITN Source | April 18, 2007

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