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Dispatch from New York City: The Center for Climate and Security at Climate Week and UNGA
Last week, the Center for Climate and Security (CCS) team traveled to NY Climate Week and the UN General Assembly to convene government officials, NGOs, multilateral organizations, and scientific experts on a broad range of security-related topics, including climate mobility, food security, renewable energy, solar geoengineering, and climate disinformation. The climate security nexus was featured both at the UN and in Climate Week convenings, with seven countries raising it in the Secretary-General’s High-Level Meeting on Climate, and multiple private sector events explicitly exploring security and resilience.
For a broader overview of key takeaways from the week, including disconnects between clean energy investors and geopolitics, and how the US is stepping back while China is stepping up, you can also check out CCS Director Erin Sikorsky’s latest Substack newsletter, Reflections on Climate Week, Power & Politics.
Below is a quick snapshot of our busy week.
(more…)Deepening UN Action on Climate Security
As the high-level meetings of the 76th UN General Assembly kick off this week, climate change is front and center. Secretary-General Guterres led with a strong call to action, saying “The world must wake up,” to the, “the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.” On Thursday, the UN Security Council (UNSC) prepares to debate climate security again. Ahead of the meeting, it’s useful to examine how the UN can drive action to match the ambition of past verbal commitments. How can it implement climate security practices to address the increasing risks to peace posed by rising temperatures? The 2021 World Climate and Security Report, released in June of this year, has some answers to this question, which we have excerpted below:
The UN system has long led the global effort on negotiated reductions in national emissions. With key nations and other multilateral institutions unable or unwilling to act, the UN process has persevered in keeping negotiated climate action on the global agenda. With political will now building within its most powerful members, the UN-led international system must seize the initiative to address all aspects of climate change drawing on the core tenets of its founding principles: peace, security, sovereignty, and human rights. It must adapt and update treaties and protocols that govern the global commons and shared environmental resources.
There are important steps all UN member states can take within their regional blocks and in the General Assembly to advocate for climate security integration into UN institutions and processes. These longer-term actions will require sustained commitment and coalition-building to enact. Broad-based support will be especially critical in the UN General Assembly’s Fifth Committee which has authority over budget and management issues. These steps include:
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