Is the United Nations Security Council an appropriate forum to discuss climate change?

 

No, said many countries including Russia and China, as officials and analysts raise doubts over whether the 15-member body can serve as the right venue to discuss the issue.

 

When the Security Council held its first-ever open debate on global warming on Tuesday, the voices of dissent were loud clear.

 

They - including Pakistan on behalf of the Group of 77, a coalition of developing countries - warned at the one-day meeting that the council, whose mandate is only global peace and security, cannot take concrete action on climate change.

 

Their main argument against the debate is that the council was encroaching on more representative bodies, such as the 192-member UN General Assembly.

 

Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said climate change is, in essence, an issue of sustainable development despite its security implications.

 

"Discussing climate change at the Security Council will not help countries in their efforts to mitigate its effects," Liu said.

 

"And it is hard for the council to help developing countries affected by climate change to find more effective solutions."

 

"Developing countries believe the Security Council has neither the expertise in handling climate change, nor is it the right decision-making place for extensive participation," he noted.

 

However, 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.

 

Most advanced economies, including the European Union, agreed with Britain. But the United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases that spur climate change, opposes mandatory caps on emissions and instead wants to focus on alternative fuels and energy efficiency.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supported the debate. He said projected changes in the earth's climate are not only an environmental concern, and issues of energy and climate change can have implications for peace and security.

 

Pakistani representative Farukh Amil, speaking for the G-77, said the council's primary responsibility is the maintenance of international peace and security as set out in the UN Charter.

 

"The issue of climate change does not belong to the Security Council, but rather in the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on Sustainable Development, and in the Climate Change Convention," said Amil.

 

"We hope that the decision by the Council to hold this debate does not create a precedent or undermine the authority or mandate of the relevant bodies, processes and instruments, which are already addressing these issues," said Amil.

 

He added that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the right forum to deal with risks linked with climate change.

 

Wu Miaofa, a former official of the Chinese Permanent Mission to the UN, said it is significant that the world body included the issue of climate change into security concerns as environmental problems such as global warming constitute a non-traditional security threat to the world.

 

But he hoped that "the decision by the council to hold this debate does not create a precedent or undermine the authority or mandate of the relevant bodies, which are already addressing these issues".

 

(China Daily April 19, 2007)