Climate change threatens world peace: UN boss
Climate change is generating extreme weather events that threaten global security, the UN chief said Wednesday as the Security Council recognized the issue's potential effect on world peace. "Extreme weather events continue to grow more frequent and intense in rich and poor countries alike, not only devastating lives, but also infrastructure, institutions, and budgets - an unholy brew which can create dangerous security vacuums," Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon told a Security Council debate on the issue.
Climate change, he said, "not only exacerbates threats to international peace and security; it is a threat to international peace and security." Ban urged concerted action and called on developed countries to lead the charge in mitigating effects of climate change, while encouraging the developing world to do its fair share.
But the 15-member Security Council failed to agree on whether climate change itself was a direct threat to international peace and security, even after a rebuke by the United States, which described the lack of consensus as "pathetic." The Security Council issued a presidential statement in which it "expresses concern that possible adverse effects of climate change may, in the long run, aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security."
But it stopped short of calling climate change a threat in itself, despite pleas to do so by Pacific small island developing states.
A U.S. diplomat, who declined to be identified, said later the UN statement was "obviously lacking force" but called it "a small step in the right direction."
Achim Steiner, director of the UN Environment Program, cited a worstcase scenario prediction that temperatures will rise 4 C by 2060 while the sea level will rise one metre in the next century. There are myriad threats already and their numbers will rise, he said, noting droughts such as the one afflicting Somalia, floods such as the ones that hit Pakistan, and their implications on the food markets. "The scale of the natural disasters will increase exponentially," he added.
Two regions of southern Somalia, hit by a devastating drought, were declared to be in a state of famine Wednesday by the United Nations, which called it the worst food crisis in Africa in 20 years.
Climate change is generating extreme weather events that threaten global security, the UN chief said Wednesday as the Security Council recognized the issue's potential effect on world peace. "Extreme weather events continue to grow more frequent and intense in rich and poor countries alike, not only devastating lives, but also infrastructure, institutions, and budgets - an unholy brew which can create dangerous security vacuums," Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon told a Security Council debate on the issue.
Climate change, he said, "not only exacerbates threats to international peace and security; it is a threat to international peace and security." Ban urged concerted action and called on developed countries to lead the charge in mitigating effects of climate change, while encouraging the developing world to do its fair share.
But the 15-member Security Council failed to agree on whether climate change itself was a direct threat to international peace and security, even after a rebuke by the United States, which described the lack of consensus as "pathetic." The Security Council issued a presidential statement in which it "expresses concern that possible adverse effects of climate change may, in the long run, aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security."
But it stopped short of calling climate change a threat in itself, despite pleas to do so by Pacific small island developing states.
A U.S. diplomat, who declined to be identified, said later the UN statement was "obviously lacking force" but called it "a small step in the right direction."
Achim Steiner, director of the UN Environment Program, cited a worstcase scenario prediction that temperatures will rise 4 C by 2060 while the sea level will rise one metre in the next century. There are myriad threats already and their numbers will rise, he said, noting droughts such as the one afflicting Somalia, floods such as the ones that hit Pakistan, and their implications on the food markets. "The scale of the natural disasters will increase exponentially," he added.
Two regions of southern Somalia, hit by a devastating drought, were declared to be in a state of famine Wednesday by the United Nations, which called it the worst food crisis in Africa in 20 years.
