NEW YORK – The United Nations Security Council will hold a summit of world leaders on Tuesday to debate climate change’s implications for world peace, an issue on which its 15 members have divergent opinions.
The session, called by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and conducted by video-conference, comes just days after the United States under President Joe Biden formally rejoins the Paris climate change accord.
Diplomats said Johnson, whose country now holds the Security Council’s rotating presidency, will address the forum, as will US climate czar John Kerry, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the prime ministers of Ireland, Vietnam, Norway and other countries.
One UN ambassador, on condition of anonymity, said the meeting will serve as a test for US-China relations, alluding to one of the few issues where the two big powers might agree. But this is not a given.
“We should watch how the Chinese position themselves with the Americans.”
Traditionally, the ambassador said, “you know that the Russians and the Chinese will immediately say (climate change has) ‘nothing to do’ with the council’s issues.”
Today, however, “the Chinese are more liable to be slightly open to that discussion”, which “leaves the Russians pretty much on their own”.
Russia does not see climate change as a broad issue for the Security Council to address. Moscow prefers dealing with climate questions on a case-by-case basis, diplomats said.
Tuesday’s meeting “will be focused on the security aspects of climate change”, a second ambassador said, also on condition of anonymity.
Some non-permanent members of the council, including Kenya and Niger, have clearly expressed their concerns about climate change’s impact on national security.
Others do not want to “turn the Security Council into another organ which is looking just at the issues more broadly around finance, adaptation, mitigation and negotiations”, the second ambassador said. – AFP, February 21, 2021
