Russia vetoed a draft resolution by Niger and Ireland on Monday at the UN Security Council establishing a generic link between global warming and global security, a development which was supported by a majority of members of the United Nations.
The text, which was favored by 12 of the 15 members of the Council, called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to “integrate climate-related security risks as a central element in the global strategies of United Nations conflict prevention ”.
India, without the right of veto, voted against, judging that global warming was mainly linked to a question of economic development. China abstained.
The resolution also demanded from the UN chief a report within two years “on the implications for security. […] adverse effects of climate change ”on the files managed by the Council, and recommendations on how these risks can be addressed.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s veto had “no justification”. “The climate crisis is a security crisis,” she argued.
Expressing their deep disappointment after the vote, his counterparts from Ireland and Niger, Geraldine Byrne Nason and Abdou Abarry, strongly denounced the existence of a veto right in the Security Council which has remained the prerogative since the World War II of its only five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom).
This right “is an anachronism”, and “this Council will never live up to its mandate for international peace and security if it does not adapt” to new challenges such as climate change, asserted these two ambassadors. of non-permanent members of the Council.
Within this body, where the United States has so far shown little initiative and counterweight to Russia under the government of Joe Biden, Moscow leads the dance by recourse without qualms to its right veto on multiple issues: Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Central African Republic, Mali, Bosnia …
On Thursday, the President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, unsuccessfully came to the UN to plead in favor of the resolution. “It is high time for the Council, within the framework of its preventive mandate, to take into account the security risks linked to climate change as an additional element of our peace and security architecture,” he explained.
” Aggravating factor “
Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, then rejected any transversal seizure of the Security Council on this issue and reiterated Monday that the resolution was “unacceptable”.
“For us, the direct link between terrorism and climate change is far from obvious,” he said, rejecting a resolution that “would create confusion and duplication” with other forums dealing with global warming. climate.
Russia does not dispute this development, but “you have to look at each country and each region individually. Generic and automatic approaches to address the causes of conflict distract the Security Council from resolving these problems, ”the Russian ambassador repeated on Monday.
For Niger, whose text was co-sponsored – a rare occurrence at this level – by 113 of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly, the Security Council must adopt “an integrated and coordinated approach, with a view to ‘a strengthening of its capacity to understand the impact of climate change ”.
Generic and automatic approaches to address the causes of conflict distract the Security Council from resolving these issues
This “on the basis of an in-depth analysis of current and future risks, so as to formulate relevant action-oriented recommendations,” said Mohamed Bazoum.
France had also considered that there was a “clear link” between global warming and security, given that access to water, food scarcity or climate insecurity allow “armed groups to prosper ”by taking advantage of the vulnerability of populations.
António Guterres had also judged that “if climate change was not the source of all ills, it had a multiplier effect and was an aggravating factor of instability, conflict and terrorism”.