E3G

UN Security Council Debate on Climate Change

By Chris Littlecott

Later today the United Nations Security Council will meet to discuss the security implications of Climate Change.

The UK currently holds the Chair of the Security Council and has initiated the debate to increase the international focus on the impacts of climate change and the benefits of acting to stabilise the climate.

UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett will lead the debate, underlining the importance the UK is attaching to this issue. Not all Security Council members share such enthusiasm however, and the USA, China and Russia will be represented by more junior ministers or their UN Ambassadors.

The BBC website carries a report this morning entitled ‘Security Council takes on global warming‘ which lays out some of the background leading up to the debate. In particular it focuses on the influential role that has been played by E3G Founding Director John Ashton through his role as Special Representative for Climate Change at the Foreign Office.

The key British official in this is John Ashton, who was appointed special climate change representative by the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett when she took office almost a year ago. Since then, the Foreign Office has had to get used to dealing with climate as a diplomatic issue.

Formerly in the Foreign Office himself, John Ashton is now on secondment from a climate lobby group called E3G.

“The security implications of climate changes are bigger than we thought even two or three years ago,“ he said of the Security Council debate.

“Their effects can already be seen in Darfur and in water shortages in Central Asia. The recent European summit committed the EU to a lower carbon economy and was a key moment. Now it is in the Security Council.

“The significance of the Security Council debate is the debate itself. The Council has not had one before. But if there is no action, there will be no winners. All will be losers.“

More news and comment on the Security Council debate will follow on the E3G website over the coming weeks.