Climate change and the UNSC

(Mains GS 2 & 3 : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests & Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.)

Context:

• Recently, India voted against  a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) linking climate to security and questioning the need for the resolution when the issue is already being dealt under the UNFCCC or United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Stepping back:

• India’s negative vote at the UN Security Council (UNSC) on a draft resolution on climate change is a reflection of its long-held opposition to expanding the UNSC’s mandate into areas that are already being dealt with by other multinational fora.
• India’s Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the U.N. T.S. Tirumurti said, positing that the reason countries were attempting to bring climate talks to the Security Council was that decisions could be taken without consensus or the involvement of most developing countries.
• India further said it was an attempt to shift climate talks from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to the Security Council and a “step backward” for collective action on the issue.

Fundamental tenets:

• Many of the UNSC members were the primary contributors to climate change due to historical emissions while India is second to none when it comes to climate action and climate justice.
• Developing and ‘least developed’ countries had worked, over the last two decades, to make “common but differentiated” responsibilities a fundamental tenet of climate action.
• Thus, India sees this attempt to link climate with security as an obfuscated lack of progress on critical issues under the UNFCCC process.

Evading responsibility:

• The resolution was to evade responsibility on climate finance, which has been dominating the climate debate especially at the recently concluded Glasgow climate summit.
• Developed countries had not met their promises with regard to climate action as these rich countries were supposed to start providing $100 billion per year in climate finance for developing countries as a whole, by 2020.
• Thus, the attempt to discuss climate action and climate justice issues at the UNSC was “motivated by a desire to evade responsibility in the appropriate forum.”

Evolution of climate finance:

• The UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) took effect in 1994.
• It was established to urge developed countries to lead the way “to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous human induced interference with the climate system.”
•  The UNFCCC also called for new funds for climate change activities in developing countries.
• Under the UNFCCC and Montreal protocol along with the more promising Paris agreement, “industrialized nations agree to support climate change activities in developing countries by providing financial support for action on climate change.

Tackling climate change: 

• Currently, all matters related to climate change are being discussed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) having over 190 members and its framework has made progress in tackling climate change.
• It is this process that led to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the recent COP26 summit, and has put in place an international approach to combat global climate change.
• Decision making at UNFCCC conferences is slow and there has to be faster collective action to tackle climate change and associated challenges but it is wrong to look at climate change through the prism of security as each nation faces different challenges in transitioning into a greener economy.

Collective consensus:

• Developed world is pushing to include what they call “climate security” in the agenda of the UNSC.
• Bringing the issue under the UNSC will also give more powers to the world’s industrialised countries, which hold a veto power, to decide on future action on climate-related security issues.
• Thus, the least developed and developing countries should encourage developed countries for collectivism as climate change is a collective process and the best way is through the UNFCCC, where decisions made are by consensus.

Conclusion:

• The UNFCCC should not only make sure that the promises made by member countries, especially the powerful ones, in previous conferences are kept but also expand the scope of discussions to include climate-related security issues.