SC Open Debate on Peace and Security Implications of Climate Change

Hello all!

Yesterday Giedre and I attended the SC Open Debate on the peace and security implications of climate change. It was quite controversial actually. Not the climate change part, but the fact that the Council was discussing it and not the GA or ECOSOC where the mandate of climate change lies.

The SG gave a strong statement in support of the SC discussing climate change as a threat to peace and security. Director of the UN Environmental Programme also gave a grim briefing on the accelerated threat of climate change. On one side were the US, Germany, SIDs (represented by President of Nauru who was there), Colombia, and EU states who are in strong support of having the SC deal with the security implications of climate change. On the opposite end were China, Russia, Lebanon, G-77, and NAM who believe it to be an encroachment on the authority of the ‘more universal bodies’ such as the GA and ECOSOC who should deal with the issue entirely. Brazil, Nigeria, and India were somewhere in the middle.

I have more detailed notes if anyone is interested!

-Katherine