S/2020/751 Security Council

I have the honour to enclose herewith a copy of the briefings provided by Mr. Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations; Colonel Mahamadou Seydou Magagi, Director, Centre National d’Études Stratégiques et de Sécurité; and Ms. Coral Pasisi, Director, Sustainable Pacific Consultancy Niue, as well as the statements delivered by Their Excellencies Mr. Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Development Cooperation of Belgium; Mr. Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam; Mr. Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany; Mr. Rene Kokk, Minister of the Environment of Estonia; and Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Commonwealth, the United Nations and South Asia of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and by the representatives of China, the Dominican Republic, France, Indonesia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and South Africa, in connection with the video- teleconference on “Maintenance of international peace and security: climate and security”, convened on Friday, 24 July 2020. Statements were also delivered by Their Excellencies Mr. Wilfred Peter Elrington, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belize; Mr. Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence of Ireland; Ms. Raychelle Awuor Omamo, Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Kenya; and Mr. Olof Skoog, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, as well as by the representatives of Denmark, Fiji and Nauru. In accordance with the understanding reached among Council members for this video-teleconference, the following delegations and entities submitted written statements, copies of which are also enclosed: Brazil, Costa Rica, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tuvalu and the United Arab Emirates. Pursuant to the letter dated 2 April 2020 from the President of the Security Council addressed to the Permanent Representatives of the members of the Security Council (S/2020/273), which was agreed in the light of the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus disease pandemic, the enclosed briefings and statements will be issued as an official document of the Security Council.

I thank the co-organizers for having convened this timely debate, and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas for presiding over this meeting. Climate change impacts all of us. Record temperatures, unprecedented sea levels and frequent extreme weather events paint a dangerous future for the planet and for humankind. The environment suffers and people suffer. As lives and livelihoods are threatened, resource competition increases and communities are displaced. The climate emergency is a danger to peace. There is no automatic link between climate change and conflict. But climate change does exacerbate existing risks and creates new ones, and the consequences vary from region to region. In the Pacific, the rise in sea levels places pressure on livelihoods, exacerbated by frequent extreme weather events that pose a risk to social cohesion. In Central Asia, water stress and reduced access to natural resources and energy can contribute to regional tensions. Across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America, climate change is expected to displace more than 140 million people within their national borders by 2050, with potentially disruptive consequences for regional stability. In the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, the effects of climate change have deepened grievances and escalated the risk of violent conflict, providing fodder for extremist organizations. Around the world, fragile or conflict-affected situations are more exposed and less able to cope with the effects of climate change. It is no coincidence that seven of the 10 countries most vulnerable and least prepared to deal with climate change host a peacekeeping operation or special political mission. Differences exist between regions, within regions and within communities. Climate-related security risks impact women, men, girls and boys in different ways. In the Sudan, climate change intersects with conflict and a legacy of exclusionary decision-making to compound resource scarcity. As a result, men often need to migrate away from their families in search of alternative livelihoods, leaving women behind in rural areas, where they find themselves on the front lines of both climate change and insecurity. To cope with climate change, we need to act on multiple fronts. Unquestionably, we need ambitious climate action and a commitment to accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Peace and security actors also have an essential role to play. The failure to consider the growing impacts of climate change will undermine our efforts at conflict prevention, peacemaking and sustaining peace, and risk trapping vulnerable countries in a vicious circle of climate disaster and conflict. In the Lake Chad basin, insecurity and governance challenges have impeded climate-adaptation efforts, affecting livelihoods, social cohesion and, ultimately, human security, which Boko Haram has proven adept at exploiting. Drawing on the evidence before us, on what we are seeing happening globally, I would like to outline some actions that we can take together to address climate- related security risks more effectively. First, we need to leverage new technologies and enhance our analytical capacity to translate long-term climate foresight into actionable, near-term analysis. The Climate Security Mechanism — a joint initiative by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme — has developed guidance in this regard and supports innovative approaches in the field. In Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission, supported by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, is developing an early-warning system that combines remote-sensing techniques with an analysis of population density and displacement data to anticipate potential tensions over water resources. Secondly, our efforts to deliver peace and security must place people at the centre and learn from those who experience daily the consequences of climate change on their security. In that regard, I commend the organizers for having ensured a diversity of perspectives in today’s debate. I look forward to hearing from Ms. Coral Pasisi and Colonel Mahamadou Magagi. In our own work, we are also working to understand the broadest range of perspectives, such as those of practitioners and grass-roots organizations from the Caribbean, the Middle East, Nepal, the Pacific and the Sahel. Building on the power of women and youth as agents for change, we must better integrate peacebuilding, environmental and gender-equality goals. In Chocó, Colombia, an inter-agency United Nations pilot project is promoting the engagement of women in environmental governance and natural-resource management within the context of the implementation of the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace, with positive effects on local-level peacebuilding. Thirdly, we need to strengthen multidimensional partnerships and connect the work of the United Nations, Member States, regional organizations and others in this area. The Regional Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience Strategy for Areas Affected by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin Area, led by the African Union and the Lake Chad Basin Commission, demonstrates the potential of inclusive, climate and security-informed approaches and shows a path towards stability. The United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel and the Economic Community of West African States have established a joint coordination mechanism on climate-related security risks, which, inter alia, seeks to identify good practices for the prevention of transhumance-related violence in the region. In the Pacific, the United Nations is continuing its close engagement with the Pacific Islands Forum to support the implementation of the Boe Declaration and help strengthen the resilience of States and communities to address the unique challenges faced by atoll nations. In Central Asia, the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy supports the Green Central Asia initiative, launched by Germany, to create an environment conducive to regional cooperation on transboundary water and climate change. These tailored, region-specific examples can provide valuable insights and lessons for other partnerships to follow. We are strongly committed to such collaboration. In recent years we have made considerable progress in our understanding of the linkages between climate change, peace and security. But climate change is relentless, and its cascading effects will continue to grow and evolve. We must remain vigilant and summon the courage to adapt our established approaches to ensure that they are fit for a climate-changed world. Above all, we must translate words into action. As the Secretary-General has emphasized, the pandemic recovery offers an opportunity to strengthen resilience and promote climate justice. I am encouraged by today’s debate as another important step in the right direction and thank the organizers again for having convened this meeting.

I wish to thank you, Mr. President, for this opportunity to speak today on climate and security. My remarks will focus on issues and alternatives from my part of the world, the African Sahel. I will start by addressing the extent to which climate change is impacting the livelihoods of citizens, examine the broader consequences of climate change on regional security, highlight the Niger’s role in alleviating climate change and, finally, formulate some recommendations to the United Nations. There are few places in the world where climate change is more real than in the Sahel. In the best of conditions, the Sahel is a challenging place, particularly for farmers and herders — two of the common ways in which people make a living in the Sahel. Already high temperatures, oscillating on average between 25°C to 45°C, are on the rise and projected to increase by 2.5°C by 2060 in the Sahel. As global temperatures rise, annual rainfalls in the Sahel are becoming highly variable in intensity and frequency. This leads, over the years, to frequent heavy rains, floods, strong winds, sandstorms and drought. In the Niger, for instance, 85 per cent of the 3,702 natural-disaster events that occurred between the years 1973 and 2014 took place from 2001 to 2014. High temperatures also mean increased evaporation of the already scarce surface water in the Sahel, contributing to severe droughts. These changes in weather bring hardships to the Sahel’s people, since 80 per cent of them depend on activities sensitive to climate change for their livelihood. Livelihoods handed down through generations are at risk as water tables dry up, crop yields diminish and the desert slowly overtakes once-fertile lands. All of this change is bound to have adverse consequences for regional peace and security. First, it directly affects personal income and living standards. Because 2012 combined floods and drought, millions of Sahelians were further impoverished as they lost their crops and cattle. In West Africa as a whole, 19 million people were affected. Secondly, the change in weather and the resulting natural disasters exacerbate the already intense competition among the rural population, especially farmers and herders, for scarce natural resources such as land, water and pasture. It is not surprising that in the Niger most conflicts between rural people occurred between farmers and herders. Competition between farmers and herders is worsening in central Mali and northern Nigeria, with a growing death toll. Considering future weather forecasts for the region and keeping in mind the fact that the Sahel has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, approximately 3 per cent a year, that competition is likely to increase. Thirdly, many people are forced to migrate if they are to survive. In cases where migrants settle for long periods of time, risks of conflicts with residents are high. In worst-case scenarios, some individuals, mostly young people, turn to illegal activities as a means of coping with the impacts of climate change. A survey conducted last year by the Centre National d’Études Stratégiques et de Sécurité in the Lake Chad part of the Niger revealed that the successive floods of 2012 and 2013 boosted Boko Haram recruitment, as young people who had lost their crops turned to the extremist movement as an alternative. In addition, a landmark study conducted by Adelphi linked climate change and conflict dynamics in a vicious circle. In the Lake Chad region, climate change increases the likelihood of conflict, while conflict undermines the ability of communities to cope and adapt to climate change. Although the aforementioned trends can fuel conflict, the link between climate change and conflicts is not always straightforward. Recent studies agree that climate change is but one among many drivers of conflict. In essence, climate change should be seen as a threat multiplier. High levels of poverty and low levels of State capacity are often more influential drivers of conflict. In the central Sahel, for instance, the International Crisis Group’s April 2020 report revealed that climate change has an indirect link to conflict through disruption of the tenuous balance between pastoral and agricultural production systems, to the detriment of herders. In central Mali, this partly explains the increasing tensions between sedentary and nomadic pastoralists over access to land and pastures. The report stresses that in many instances the inability of nation States to adequately handle those tensions leads to violent conflict. Indeed, the spread of conflict in the region is linked less to dwindling resources than to a transformation of the modes of production, resulting in poorly regulated competition over access to increasingly coveted resources, particularly arable land. From the foregoing, it appears that climate change is one factor among others driving conflicts in the Sahel. However, the expected level of global warming and its consequences for humans across the world, particularly in the Sahel, will exacerbate security risks. That situation requires that we shoulder our individual and collective responsibility to prepare, for our generation and the next. In response to climate change in the Sahel, the Niger’s national initiatives and regional leadership are making a positive impact. Internally, the Niger has adopted innovative policies, strategies, programmes and initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change and strengthening its people’s resilience. For example, the landmark initiative entitled “Nigeriens nourishing Nigeriens” has enabled the Niger to avert famines in spite of droughts. Thanks to that initiative, the Niger has not experienced famine since 2011 and by 2012 had already succeeded, ahead of schedule, in reducing by 50 per cent the portion of its population threatened by food insecurity. At the subregional level, the Niger is actively taking part to diverse climate action. Since 1974, the Niger has hosted the AGRHYMET Regional Center, in charge of weather forecasting and food security in the Sahel. In addition, since 2016, the Niger has headed the Climate Commission for the Sahel Region, comprising 17 African countries and aimed at facilitating the implementation of Paris Agreement on Climate Change in the subregion. Finally, in order for it to better assist countries around the world mitigate climate security risks, I propose that the United Nations conduct an integrated climate security assessment before assisting countries, assist in building national- to-local capabilities to monitor and manage climate change effects; task United Nations country teams that are in contact with relevant Government bodies to collect authoritative information on the impact of climate-related security risks in conflict settings and make those results available to the States Members of the United Nations; ensure that the United Nations Development Assistance Framework fully integrates climate-related security risks and management with due consideration to gender; strengthen the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency response in order to add a component of climate-related security risk assessment to be made available to the Security Council; and establish and sustain a United Nations climate security risk management coordination mechanism.

I am grateful for this opportunity to brief the Council during this high-level debate. For over a decade, Pacific Islands Forum leaders have been stating every year in their annual communiqué that climate change presents the single greatest threat to the security of our region. There are many reasons for that, but in the interest of time I will highlight only three examples today. First is the threat to our maritime boundaries and the pivotal importance for international peace and the security of the settled legal order for the oceans, as established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and customary international law. The Pacific islands region is a blue continent, made up of 98 per cent ocean in nature. Our collective exclusive economic zones compromise 28 million square kilometres of the globe, and more than 20 per cent of the world’s exclusive economic zones. Both collectively and individually, our economies, environments, people and security are intricately linked to our ocean and the certainty with which we can sustainably manage and benefit from the ocean’s resources now and into the future. UNCLOS established a comprehensive legal order for the ocean, providing a regime for certain, stable and durable maritime zone designations and associated rights, duties and economic returns. However, UNCLOS did not foresee the potential impact of climate change. As a result, many maritime boundaries of States around the world may be affected by climate change and sea-level rise. Pacific small island developing States (SIDS) are among the most affected for several key reasons. First, for many of our island countries, particularly the low- lying atolls, the basepoints used to demarcate maritime boundaries consist of coral islands and sandy cays. Those are vulnerable to climate-change induced sea-level rise, ocean acidification and degrading coral reef systems. In addition, the Pacific is home to the majority of low-lying atoll nations on Earth. Four of our low-lying atoll nations have between 90 and 100 per cent of their exclusive economic zones demarcated based on those vulnerable baseline features. That could have significant consequences for statehood, national identity, sustainable development, livelihoods and law and order in the Pacific. There can be no greater security threat than the potential loss of one’s entire nation and its jurisdictions established under international law. The magnitude of that security challenge underpins the priority Pacific leaders have placed on registering maritime boundaries as a matter of great urgency. More recently, they have sought progressive legal options to ensure that once fixed in accordance with UNCLOS, those boundaries cannot be challenged as a result of the impact of climate change and sea-level rise. That is a highly technical and resource-intensive exercise being undertaken by Pacific island countries themselves. That work has been assisted by a consortium of partners over the last 10 years, led by the Pacific Community, supported by the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat and funded by Australia and other partners. Secondly, there is a threat to the blue economy, particularly predicted losses in tuna fisheries. Fisheries and tourism revenue derived from a healthy ocean environment underpin the economic and social stability, sustainable development and health of most of our Pacific island countries. Climate change threatens to permanently degrade and destabilize a massive portion of coral reefs, ocean ecosystems and the key species we are dependent upon. Given the time constraints, I will focus on tuna as an example. The western and central Pacific Ocean is home to over half the world’s tuna stocks. It supplies one-third of global tuna supply, and several Pacific SIDS are extraordinarily dependent on tuna. Nine Pacific SIDS derive an average of 10 to 84 per cent of all Government revenue from tuna fishing license fees. The industry employs about 6 to 8 per cent of the labour force, and often comprises a higher percentage of women. Within 15 years, 25 per cent of all fish required for the food security of Pacific island people will need to be supplied by tuna. Climate change is projected to alter the migratory patterns of tuna, moving them further eastwards and up into the high-seas areas. It will also impact the fish stock health and numbers. The latest preliminary modelling and economic analysis under way indicates that 20 per cent of the combined tuna catch currently harvested from the exclusive economic zones of Pacific SIDS, will shift to the high-seas areas by 2050, under RCP 8.5 emissions scenario. That represents $90 million per annum in lost access revenue for all Pacific SIDS combined by 2050, and losses of up to 10 to 15 per cent in total Government revenue for several countries. Those effects could also weaken existing compliance and enforcement arrangements by increasing the potential for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, as monitoring and the imposition of penalties are more difficult in high-seas areas. If left unaddressed, the consequences of those threats could catalyse conflict and instability in island economies. Thirdly, the threats posed by displacement and forced migration already being experienced in our region. Long before land disappears beneath the ocean, it will become greatly degraded and unproductive due to saltwater intrusion, coastal erosion and coral reef degradation. In the absence of ambitious mitigation and adaptation, that could force the displacement and migration of thousands of people and cause huge loss and damage. Close to 60 per cent of our populations live within one kilometre of the ocean, and displacement is already affecting a number of Pacific SIDS and communities in the region. Examples include resettlement within Papua New Guinea of inhabitants from Carteret and other atolls to Bougainville, and between islands — with climate change migrants going from Tuvalu to Niue over the past 10 years or so. Such changes undermine complex and often contested traditional land tenure systems and limited land resources, thus increasing the potential for conflict and fragility. There remains a great dearth of protection policies, resources and information on the status of those situations in the region and how to effectively manage them. Countries, communities and individuals will continue to suffer great loss and damage, both economic and non-economic. Some of our young people, in particular, stand to lose their inherent birthrights of cultural and traditional practice in situ and potentially citizenship. Those are irreplaceable losses. What can the United Nations system and Council do to help? Without a doubt, the most important measure we can take to reduce the threats to island countries in the Pacific and across the world is to stop climate change and reverse it. That requires an ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement. Awful as it is, the coronavirus disease presents an important opportunity to reset, bringing to the fore the importance of healthy, connected and resilient societies. We cannot achieve those goals over the long-term without collective climate action. Key climate events may be delayed, but the climate emergency is not. This effort requires all of us to understand and monitor the implications globally to all people and to be willing to mount a coordinated response. For countries that have contributed very little to global warming but stand to lose so much, it seems a fair ask to have the highest multilateral organ on Earth tasked with global security — the Security Council — to take the time to understand this scenario and to do everything in its power to address it. I call on the Council to continue to build on and integrate the best available science, modelling and risk assessments into its work. I call on it to coordinate with the many existing efforts already under way across the development, climate change and humanitarian bodies of practice. I call on it to mobilize the necessary capacity and resources and to use its power to rally global ambition to address this issue before it becomes a greater security challenge than any of us can deal with.

We are delighted to co-sponsor today’s meeting and thank Germany for the initiative. We align ourselves with the interventions submitted by the observer of the European Union (see annex 18) and by the representative of the Group of Friends on Climate and Security (see annex 21). I also thank the briefers for the insightful remarks. Today’s topic is not abstract, nor is it confined to the virtual walls of the Security Council Chamber. As we speak, ever more erratic rain patterns are increasing tensions between herders and farmers in the Sahel. As we speak, droughts are causing displacement and are impacting livelihoods from Somalia and Yemen to Afghanistan. Affected communities become more vulnerable to recruitment by insurgents or they vie for scarcer resources. And as we speak, the melting of the polar ice caps is leading to the militarization of the Arctic. The impact of climate change on security is rarely straightforward. It is multifaceted and context-dependent. Climate change reinforces existing social, political, economic and environmental drivers of conflict. Some might think that the topic does not belong on the Council’s agenda because of its complexity. But is complexity an excuse for inaction? The very first article of the Charter of the United Nations is clear. We, as signatory States, bind ourselves to “take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace”. Over the past 75 years, we have focused too often on immediate crises. We have failed to take robust preventive action. Faced with climate change as our most existential challenge yet, can we — the United Nations — afford to tell future and even current generations that even though we knew, even though vast research was available, we did not act? As an elected member, Belgium has consistently backed a Council with a broader role in addressing climate-related security risks. As attested by the wide participation in this debate and the continuous support of a clear majority of the Council’s members, from all continents, that is a broadly shared endeavour. I envisage the following priority actions to improve the work of the Security Council. First, the Council needs to be better informed. We need data and improved information management. Analytical and forecasting tools feed into early-warning systems and improve conflict-prevention capacity. Existing tools rarely address climate change. Therefore, the United Nations needs an institutional clearing house, a body that mobilizes existing expertise and makes it available to the Security Council. We strongly support the Climate Security Mechanism in that regard and have contributed to its reinforcement. In that connection, Belgium welcomes the launch of an informal expert group to further institutionalize the Council’s engagement on this topic. Secondly, the United Nations needs to report. The strengthened information basis should result in a regular report by the Secretary-General to the Security Council on climate-related risks and preventive measures. That would improve our collective understanding of what regions and sectors are most impacted. We further expect regular country-level reporting to be climate-sensitive, and encourage the Secretariat to organize horizon-scanning briefings related to climate. Lastly, the Security Council needs to act. During our term on the Council, Belgium’s primary focus has been mainstreaming climate-related security risks into relevant Council action. We are pleased that currently 12 national, regional or thematic mandates can be considered climate-sensitive. Those include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, West Africa, the Sudan and Mali. We expect those missions to have dedicated capacity, in terms of both personnel and training, and to support the efforts of national and regional organizations. We also expect United Nations missions to be mindful of their own environmental impact. We also advocate action beyond the Council. Belgium proudly contributes €15 million to the Global Environment Facility each year and recently announced that it will double its contribution to the Green Climate Fund to €100 million for the period 2020-2023. Belgium has also contributed about €15 million to the Least Developed Countries Fund each year for the past four years. In addition, 72 per cent of the activities of the Belgian development agency Enabel, are carried out in fragile contexts. We nevertheless note with concern that today the 10 most fragile countries receive only 4.5 per cent of climate funding. The early-warning systems for conflicts and crises rarely include climate-related security risks. To remedy those gaps in our understanding and undertakings, we also started a multifaceted academic analysis of Belgian development assistance in the region of Central Africa. More and more countries are experiencing the security and humanitarian implications of climate change. That prospect frightens future generations. Under the presidency of the Dominican Republic, the Council held a debate on the issue of youth, peace and security. Exceptionally, the Belgian intervention was written by youth representatives. It will come as no surprise that climate and security was their number one priority. Current and future generations look to us for strong and concerted action. Let us not fail them.

I thank you, Sir, and the German presidency for convening this important open debate on climate and security. Let me also thank Assistant Secretary-General Jenča and the other briefers for their insights and recommendations. Viet Nam is among the nations most heavily affected by climate change. Our Mekong river delta — crucial for Viet Nam’s and regional food security — is one of the deltas most affected by sea-level rise and salination. Effective response to climate change is therefore vital to our sustainable development. Viet Nam seriously implements our commitments and obligations under all key international legal instruments on climate change. We support efforts to address climate-related challenges, including at the Security Council. At the regional level, we work with partners to strengthen Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) awareness, coordination and resilience and to implement an ASEAN Joint Response to Climate Change. The adverse effects of climate change are increasingly visible. They have deprived populations of livelihoods and exposed them to acute food and water insecurities. They have caused mass displacement and ignited fierce competition over natural resources. Climate change has proven to be a dangerous threat multiplier, to aggravate vulnerable political and security situations and to prolong, exacerbate and even instigate conflicts and instabilities. In the face of these tremendous challenges, the Security Council must do its part. The ongoing efforts to advance the climate agenda in the Council, in which Viet Nam actively engages, are going in the right direction. But more could be done. First, the Council should continue with an integrated and comprehensive approach in addressing root causes of conflicts, such as poverty, injustice, militarism and disregard for international law. Secondly, the Council should include in its conflict analysis consideration of the impacts of climate change. This is key to developing strategies that can address all aspects of crises and conflicts in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. Thirdly, the Council must support efforts of the entire United Nations system and the role of key international instruments for addressing climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement must continue to guide national and global responses based on mitigation, adaptation and resilience, which would contribute to the prevention of climate-induced conflicts and crises. Special attention and assistance should be given to developing, least- developed, small-island and landlocked countries, many of which suffer heavily from the impacts of climate change, but lag far behind in terms of response capacity, expertise and resources. Fourthly, in addressing climate and security issues, the Council, like any other international institution, needs to respect the sovereignty, national ownership and primary responsibility of States and act in line with their respective mandates. Climate change knows no borders and will cause more severe consequences unless we coordinate our efforts more effectively and efficiently. To address this global challenge, we need a global response, in which multilateral cooperation coordinated by the United Nations is essential. I strongly believe that strengthening global partnership is key to securing sustainable peace and prosperity for our people and the planet.

As diplomats and politicians, we tend to think that everything is negotiable. This is also the underlying idea behind the Security Council: building international consensus. But we cannot negotiate with nature. The physical, chemical and geographical realities of global warming will not compromise with us. Climate change is happening, and its consequences for peace and security are already real, from the Sahel to the islands of the Pacific and the Caribbean. Sooner rather than later, climate change will be a catalyst in almost every conflict that we are dealing with. Our briefers made that very clear today. The defining question for us is therefore whether we will finally live up to the challenge. The answer given by the vast majority of the members of the Security Council and of the United Nations as a whole is clear. They expect us to take action, and so do future generations. Today we are proposing three steps that can be taken right away. First, the Security Council needs better information on climate-related security risks. This should include early warning indicators, allowing us to act before it is too late. At an international conference in Berlin last month, we launched a Global Climate Security Risk and Foresight Assessment, which can become a reference point for our work in the Council as well as a tool to strengthen United Nations efforts on mediation and preventive diplomacy as a whole. This will require better training and expertise within United Nations missions and mediation teams. As an example, Germany is funding an expert who advises the country team in Somalia on the security implications of climate change. This should become a standard practice in all United Nations operations. Secondly, it is time to give climate and security a face. We call on the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative on climate and security as soon as possible. He, or she, could ensure that climate change is placed where it belongs, namely, at the heart of the Security Council’s work, which is to maintain international peace and security in the twenty-first century. Thirdly, the United Nations needs to be ready to act when climate-related security risks hit. Such risks must therefore be addressed in all mandates and conflict-prevention strategies. Together with our partners, we will convene an informal expert group of the Security Council on climate and security as soon as possible. Our goal is to enshrine this topic in the Council’s work once and for all. Today I invite all participants to join us in this effort. I am grateful and confident that our joint initiative will be carried forward by those who succeed us in the Security Council. The fight against climate change should not divide us. We fight it to save ourselves, and we fight it for the people around the world who are already facing violence and displacement as a result of climate change. They cannot afford to wait. The time for diplomatic patience is therefore over. The Security Council cannot negotiate with the realities of nature. Action is all that counts.

I thank the briefers for their detailed reports. The ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic is presenting challenges in many places around the globe. It clearly shows the need for our continued coordination to tackle climate change, including climate-related security risks. Human insecurity almost never has a single cause but comes from different factors. Climate change is an important factor: it increases instability and existing tensions and poses a real threat to international peace and security. These risks are present. Estonia is not at the centre of climate change disasters. Still, we see the negative effects to our biodiversity, particularly in the agriculture and forestry sectors. In many places around the world, however, the effects go much further. It is clear that the pressure that climate change poses is growing globally. That is why we must take immediate action. The scale of climate-related security risks is underestimated. It is known that climate change intensifies important drivers of conflict and fragility and challenges the stability of States and societies. It is therefore crucial for the Security Council to take a systematic approach to addressing climate-related security risks. First, it is important to improve the United Nations capacity to minimize security risks from climate change. For example, appointing a Special Representative for climate and security would help improve coordination among relevant United Nation entities. Secondly, we need reliable and accurate information and data to better understand the conflict drivers and the implications for stability. We need to improve the collection, monitoring and analysis of the data. Systematic reporting by the Secretary-General to the Security Council on climate-related security risks should be part of such an approach. As it brings about competition over natural resources and energy, it is our key goal to mitigate climate change. We need to invest in green and sustainable technologies. Estonia is moving towards the development of hydrogen and other renewable-energy technologies and innovative solutions. These green solutions are an important part of a stable and peaceful security environment. We invite all countries to cooperate and share best practices with Estonia and other international partners on this matter. Finally, addressing the threats of climate change should be an important part of the Council’s work. We need to focus on prevention tools and strategies instead of dealing with the consequences later. It is our common responsibility to minimize climate-related security risks and prevent conflicts. Without relevant action taken by the international community, and particularly by the Security Council, climate change will mean more fragility, less peace and less security.

It is always a pleasure seeing Foreign Minister Maas and joining him at the Security Council. We thank our expert briefers — Mr. Magagi, Assistant Secretary- General Jenča and Ms. Pasisi — for their insights and expertise in briefing the Security Council today. With regard to today’s threats to prosperity are tomorrow’s geopolitical problems, the briefers have clearly set out the impacts of climate change on international peace and security. We, the United Kingdom, have kept this issue high on the Security Council’s agenda since we first brought it to the Council, in 2007 (see S/PV.5663 and resumption). Unfortunately, what we said then, and what many others have emphasized since, has been proven right. This year, for the first time in its history, the top five global risks in the World Economic Forum’s annual report were all environmental. It is clear that climate change is a multiplier of stress and hardship. It hits hardest in the most vulnerable communities in the most vulnerable countries and regions across the world. As we have heard, scarce resources, economic shocks, displacement and sea-level rise lead to significantly higher chances of violent conflict. With the added multiplier of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as we have all experienced in the course of this year, the threat to peace has become extreme. We all feel the impacts of climate change, but they do not affect us equally. We know, for example, that women and girls suffer disproportionately. Gender inequalities can limit access to education, decision-making, food and adequate housing. Girls and women can be more exposed to disaster-induced poverty or exploitation. Women are significantly more likely than men to die during a climate- related disaster. And we know that it is tragic but true that gender-based violence and exploitation increase during crises. In their aftermath, women and girls are often subject to sexual violence and exploitation as they attempt to gain access to food and other basic needs. I joined the President last week in focusing on these specific concerns. Let me once again emphasize and reiterate that the United Kingdom is dedicated to tackling all forms of gender-based violence globally, including through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative. Our approach to climate security must be sensitive to these inequalities and deep concerns. Women’s full, effective, pivotal and meaningful participation is key for sustainable peace. The evidence proves it. We must be led by the needs and priorities of women and girls, and we must draw on their potential, their insights, their expertise and their experiences in crafting our response. The Security Council must take this opportunity to address this imbalance. Of course, no nation is unscathed. Every country needs to decide how to adapt to climate impacts, and how to build resilience. At the heart of its priorities for the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) next year, the United Kingdom wants to bring countries together to urgently increase climate action in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the objectives of the Framework Convention. At COP26, we will prioritize action that builds adaptation and resilience, particularly in climate-vulnerable regions, including through better coordination and increased finance. By building resilience, we can reduce risk, including climate-related security risks. Furthermore, as the leaders of all 54 Commonwealth countries emphasized in their recent statement on the COVID-19 pandemic, we must come together and work collaboratively and collectively to build back better. This includes continuing to advocate on behalf of small and vulnerable States, recognizing that the pandemic has exacerbated many of the inherent challenges that these States already face. Working together benefits each and every one of us. But above all, we need an evidence-based approach to climate-security threats. With such an approach, we can tailor solutions to the fragile and conflict- affected States on our agenda. We have already done this in several resolutions of the Security Council, in particular recent resolutions on Mali, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Somalia. We now need to push for the effective implementation of those resolutions. We need to integrate climate resilience into our development, peacebuilding and humanitarian work. We need to use data, evidence and best practices. To do that effectively, we need to understand the drivers of conflict and the implications for long-term stability. I would like to echo calls for a comprehensive report of the Secretary-General to the Council on climate-related security risks. Secondly, we would also welcome climate-risk assessment and climate resilience as an integral part of the Council’s work. This will correctly factor climate risks into United Nations operations, conflict prevention and resolution strategies and peacebuilding funds. Through the Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership, we will expand early-action financing, improve early-warning systems and build national capacity to respond early to risks. We are supporting the development of a reimplementation plan that will make some 1 billion people safer from disaster by 2025. Thirdly, we will support strengthening the ability of the United Nations to enable analysis and action on climate risk as a fundamental way of working. Finally, we will integrate climate forecasting with broader conflict-prevention measures to keep our efforts on target. In conclusion, there is no doubt that climate-related security threats, as the President himself articulated, are real. They are immediate, and they are here to stay. We must therefore work together so that the United Nations system can consider climate risks and threats holistically when we make decisions and implement them into United Nations mission planning.

I welcome you, Mr. Foreign Minister, to the Security Council to preside over today’s meeting. I thank Assistant Secretary-General Jenča and Mr. Magagi for their briefings. I also listened attentively to Ms. Pasisi’s briefing. Humans and nature share a community of life. What hurts nature hurts humans. Climate change poses a major obstacle to sustainable development. The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reminds us again that no country or individual is immune to global challenges, and solidarity and cooperation are what is most needed. Climate change endangers the future of humankind and requires joint efforts by all of us. In this context, China wishes to stress the following. First, we should honour commitments and effectively implement the multilateral consensus on climate change. Every country should firmly support multilateralism instead of putting itself first, implement the obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, especially the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and build a fair, equitable and win-win global climate-governance system. The biggest challenge facing the multilateral climate process is the significant financing gap. Developed countries should fulfil their commitments to provide $100 billion in climate financing annually by 2020, set a new collective quantified goal and enhance the transparency of financial support. Secondly, we should prioritize development and advance the cause of sustainable development. Climate change is, in essence, a development issue rather than a security issue; there is no direct linkage between the two. The solution to climate change lies in sustainable development. Progress on the development front is conductive to effectively addressing climate change and security risks exacerbated by climate change. The international community should give priority to development in the coordination of global macroeconomic policy. Countries should promote green and low-carbon transformation and enhance resilience in the face of climate change. Thirdly, we should put people first and ensure that no one and no country is left behind. African countries and small island developing States are confronted with underdevelopment, resource shortages and weak technology. Developed countries should actively transfer climate-friendly technologies to help developing countries enhance capacity for adaptation and mitigation and accelerate green development. Fourthly, we should encourage United Nations agencies to better discharge their respective responsibilities and work in a coordinated manner to form synergy. The UNFCCC secretariat, the United Nations development system and Resident Coordinators should, in accordance with their mandates, mobilize the efforts of all sides to provide targeted support for climate change response and economic and social development. The Security Council, as the organ handling international peace and security issues, should act in line with the mandates of the relevant resolutions, analyse security challenges and the security implications of climate change for the countries concerned and discuss and handle relevant issues on a country-specific basis. China has been actively tackling climate change and implementing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change while fighting COVID-19 and promoting economic recovery. We pursue green development, put people first and make every effort to address environmental issues to meet our people’s aspiration for a better life. China’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 were 45.8 per cent lower than in 2005, thus meeting the emissions-reduction target two years ahead of schedule. In 2018, the share of non-fossil fuels in China’s total energy consumption reached 14.3 per cent. New energy vehicle ownership in China accounts for more than half of the world’s total. We earnestly implement the basic State policy of resource conservation and environmental protection and promote ecological progress to build a beautiful China. A quarter of the world’s newly afforested area since 2000 is in China. China is working to treat 50 per cent of its treatable desert land by the end of this year. We are vigorously promoting international climate cooperation. China is advancing the development of a green Silk Road. We jointly initiated the Belt and Road Initiative international green development coalition with the United Nations Environment Programme and have helped relevant countries develop renewable energy projects, such as hydro, wind and photovoltaic power, to achieve an energy transition and green development. With China’s efforts, the Group of 20 issued its first presidential statement on climate change in 2016. For two consecutive years, China, France and the United Nations held trilateral high-level meetings and issued communiqués on climate change, setting an example for the international community. As a co-lead of the nature-based solution track of the Climate Action Summit, China pushed for nearly 200 initiatives, ensuring positive outcomes for the Summit. Looking at today’s world, we can see that a given country’s irresponsible and crazy act of unilateralism and bullying practices are causing greater danger. Should this go unchecked, international rule of law, equity, justice, equality and mutual trust will no longer exist, and the world will descend into absolute chaos. We must stand together and fight back. I wish to emphasize that, no matter how the world may evolve, China will always side with multilateralism and international justice, firmly uphold the international order based on international law, reject hegemonism and bullying practices and oppose self-proclaimed supremacy and power politics. China will work with other members of the international community to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, security and prosperity for all.

We thank Germany for convening this debate, of which we are pleased to be co-sponsors. The Dominican Republic associates itself with the statement to be submitted by the delegation of Nauru on behalf of the Group of Friends on Climate and Security (see annex 21). It is no coincidence that the Security Council has held debates on this issue for three consecutive years, coordinated under the presidencies of Sweden in 2018 (see S/PV.8307), the Dominican Republic in 2019 (see S/PV.8451) and, now, that of Germany. Our meeting in Arria Formula format last April was the fifth on this topic since 2013. This has shown that there is greater awareness of the risks to peace and security that result from climate change or that are aggravated by its effects. For many small island developing States, like the Dominican Republic, climate change poses an existential risk. Its impact on the development and well-being of our peoples is widely recognized. In the Caribbean, the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme natural phenomena leave no doubt as to the vulnerability of our territories and of the people who build their futures in them. But climate change is a multidimensional challenge, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the dangers it unleashes threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions. Thanks to joint efforts, we have seen progress in considering the effects of climate change as one of the risk factors in contexts like the Lake Chad region, Mali, Somalia, West Africa and the Sahel, the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This year, the topic has received attention from the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel and in Council products relating to the African Union missions in Somalia and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur. Furthermore, we have made progress in recognizing the interconnections between the security risks posed by the effects of climate change and the Council’s other concerns, such as addressing the conflict from a gender perspective. It is crucial to continue integrating a climate perspective into our analysis of the impacts of conflict on youth, children and other vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, displaced persons and refugees. The available evidence suggests that the effects of climate change will intensify in the coming years. Therefore, that increases the potential for its negative effects to be translated into fundamental causes of conflict. This organ, responsible for ensuring international peace and security, must increase its analytical capacity and integrate the necessary tools to identify, and eventually prevent, drivers of destabilization. How can we ignore the aftermath of natural disasters, droughts and floods, land degradation and rising sea levels and their link with potential and current conflicts, such as poverty and competition for scarce natural and food resources, displacement and social tensions? We appreciate the efforts already made by the Climate Security Mechanism hosted by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. Their contributions to the design of a conceptual framework for the assessment of risks related to climate change, as well as tools for the development of early-warning strategies and risk prevention and management, are fundamental. We are at a juncture that forces us to continue our reflection on conflict prevention in the face of unconventional threats and to build on the progress already made. We must move from a conjunctural to a comprehensive approach, incorporating climate security risks in our deliberations and by way of a greater flow of systematic, contextualized reporting by the Secretary-General. Incorporating that information requires strengthening the analytical capacities of all the relevant entities of the United Nations system, and therefore increasing the capacity and training of actors in the field to enable the identification and evaluation of risks related to climate change, as how the latter interacts with other risk factors is crucial. Finally, we need to continue working towards the creation of the necessary mandate to ensure that the topic of the effects of climate change on international peace and security figures regularly on the Council’s agenda. The Council, in its unique role, must be up to the challenges we have already identified. It is time to unite forces and for the Council to show its political will to take firm action enabling us to give appropriate and coherent responses.

First, I would like to commend Germany for considering the links between climate change and security as one of the main priorities of its term on the Security Council. I would also like to commend Mr. Jenča and the speakers who followed him for their briefings. At a time when the response to the global health crisis caused by coronavirus disease is mobilizing the attention of all, it is important not to forget the threats to international security linked to environmental risk, in particular to climate change and the destruction of natural biotopes, and to strengthen our collective action on this matter. A world in a state of climate emergency, such as ours, is an endangered world exposed to increased security risks and new threats. It is to anticipate, prevent and limit those effects that the international community must act. In that context, I would like to share with the Council three beliefs. The first is that the repercussions of climate change and the collapse of biodiversity on international security must imperatively become a key element of the conflict prevention agenda. The second is that a rigorous and regular analysis of these risks is necessary and in the international public interest; the United Nations must play a central role in this regard. The third is that this risk analysis must be accompanied by preventive measures to be implemented by national Governments, regional organizations, development partners and United Nations agencies. On the basis of these beliefs, France wishes to work with all Member States on the several proposals we have already shared, including the following main two. The first proposal aims to adopt a collective tool that would analyse and give early warning of the impacts of climate change on international peace and security. Some data and analytical tools already exist, but they are dispersed among States and even within the United Nations, between its various agencies, and in think tanks. It is about bringing them together in a single document and giving them significant visibility. What is missing is a whistle-blower, such as what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change does for climate change. France would like the Secretary- General to play that role by presenting to the General Assembly and to the Security Council a report every two years that takes stock of the risks to peace and security posed by the impacts of climate change, in all regions of the world and with different projections in time. This is the only way to put in place truly appropriate responses to the current threats in the Sahel, parts of Asia and island States. It is also the only way to foresee future threats and to help the most vulnerable countries cope with the pressures they will face in the decades to come. The second proposal concerns the role of the United Nations in developing recommendations for concrete actions. Faced with these security risks, we must mobilize a wide range of tools and strengthen the capacities of the Secretariat in terms of climate expertise and coordination. In some cases, such as after an extreme weather event, emergency humanitarian measures will be required in order to save lives and ensure security, but also to provide the means for reconstruction. In other cases, it will be necessary to help communities adapt to the inevitable rise in sea levels and soil degradation. Sometimes it will be necessary to pre-empt threats by providing small producers with insurance mechanisms that will allow them to restart economic activity quickly after a climate disaster, rather than have to migrate to other areas. In that framework, the work of the Climate Security Mechanism is invaluable, but it must be strengthened, in particular with the appointment of a Special Envoy for climate security. In any case, the United Nations must play an important role in developing these recommendations and then in coordinating the efforts that must be implemented as a matter of priority by national Governments, regional organizations and international partners. Faced with these certain risks, we cannot take refuge in denial or disinformation. We can anticipate and respond to them and prevent conflicts. We must act now — that is the role of the United Nations and the Council, as well as France’s commitment. That is why we support the idea of submitting a draft resolution to the General Assembly aimed at implementing the proposals made today.

I would like to welcome you, Minister Maas, and the Honourable Ministers from Viet Nam, Belgium, Estonia, the United Kingdom and Tunisia to this important meeting. I would also like to thank the briefers for their insightful presentations. Across the globe, we are increasingly witnessing the adverse impacts of climate change as they affect people, ecosystems and livelihoods. Among those impacts, sea level rise, extreme weather events and drought are causing food insecurity, habitat loss and species extinction. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the costs of climate change are likely to increase over time. Against that backdrop, I would like to outline three points with regard to the topic of this open debate, namely, climate and security. First, the linkage between climate change and security risks is highly context- specific. I thank Mr. Mahamadou Seydou Magagi for providing context to this discussion through the example on the Sahel. While climate change was never the only driver of conflict, there is evidence to suggest that it has multiplied existing risks known to contribute to insecurity. Yet that linkage depends on many other factors, including availability of resources and the capacity to adapt. Therefore, it is important to understand this relationship through informed analysis that takes into account local context and up-to-date climate information. I concur with Assistant Secretary-General Jenča that we must put people at the centre and learn from daily experience in addressing the consequences of climate change on security. It is only through understanding the precise relationship between climate and conflict that we can come up with effective and efficient policy recommendations. The Security Council has discussed climate and security issues at various meetings. It has also integrated language on climate-related security risks into country-specific resolutions. In that context, it is also important to give attention to strengthening the capacity of affected countries to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate-related security risks. The Climate Security Mechanism has also been established to provide assessment of climate-related security risks and their management strategy. It is useful to strengthen the Mechanism, including through capacity-building and linkage with the international research community. Secondly, we should mainstream climate change considerations throughout the whole peace continuum, from conflict prevention, peacemaking and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery, on a case by case basis. That includes integrating climate analysis into risk assessment and considering climate-related impacts on peace processes and peacekeeping operations, as well as designing climate-sensitive peacebuilding interventions in countries affected by conflict. Embedding climate issues in conflict prevention and peacebuilding could contribute to preventing the triggering and escalation of conflict due to the impacts of climate change. Priorities must be established in countries and situations where climate risks intersect with fragile politics. It is crucial to assist those countries to build adaptive capacity and enhance resilience based on their needs and priorities. Thirdly, we should enhance cooperation and information-sharing. The United Nations systems must work in synergy, according to their respective competencies and mandates. Climate change and its related security impacts are a very complex area, rendering a response by any single actor impossible and unrealistic. It is important to enhance cooperation and the exchange of information across all United Nations entities to ensure effective response strategies. Efforts to address climate- related security risks should take advantage of and mobilize existing expertise and capacity and take into account the needs of affected communities. Lastly, if the coronavirus disease pandemic has taught us something, it is that national interest alone cannot result in a solution to common global challenges. I would therefore reiterate that it is crucial to enhance international cooperation in addressing climate change. To that end, Indonesia believes that discussion and consideration regarding climate-related security risks can be beneficial only if they lead to eventual action in addressing climate change appropriately through robust mitigation and adaptation action. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change continues to be the leading forum to address climate change, and it remains crucial to uphold the Paris Agreement and for countries to meet their nationally determined commitments. For its part, Indonesia stands ready to contribute to the global efforts to combat climate change, including by addressing its relationship with security challenges.

We are all aware that climate change is a global, multidimensional and cross- cutting reality and a threat of existential proportions. Drought, desertification, erratic rainfall, sea-level rise, flooding, hurricanes and other climatic hazards endanger lives and livelihoods, increasing displacement and competition over scarce resources. The impact on countries is already evident, and will only worsen if we do not address this crisis. We need leadership and the political will to drastically change our planet’s trajectory and to address the climate and security challenges already in existence. To that end, it is clear that the Security Council must work within its mandate to address the grave consequences of the climate crisis for international peace and security. We hope that today’s meeting will serve as another step in the right direction, and we commend Germany for convening us to discuss this common threat. We are delighted to be a co-sponsor of this meeting. We also thank the briefers for their insightful remarks, which have served to underscore the insidious impacts of climate change. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is committed to addressing this existential threat both within and outside the Security Council. A number of situations on the Security Council’s agenda, from Haiti and Afghanistan to West Africa and the Sahel region, provide clear evidence that the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events already have a tangible impact on security and contribute to many challenges. The Security Council has acknowledged this issue in an increasing number of situations but, due to a lack of collective political will, we have unfortunately not been able to include climate and security considerations in numerous resolutions emanating from the Council. This means that the necessary climate-sensitive assessments and expertise are often not incorporated into the key actions of many peacekeeping and special political missions. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines believes that the Security Council must be enabled to further increase its awareness, understanding and ability to assess and respond to the security implications of the effects of climate change in an evidence- based manner. There are no neat boundaries between the interplay of issues resulting from human-induced climate change. But we must all work within our respective mandates to address the far-reaching impact of climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change remains the primary body for addressing climate change, and United Nations organs such as the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council continue to play important roles. At the same time, it is vitally important that climate perspectives be comprehensively incorporated into the peace and security pillar of the United Nations. What is therefore needed is a complementary, synergistic approach that makes best use of the expertise of all relevant organs and actors. At this critical moment, we need adequate data from country- and region- specific situations, with consideration of the differential and gendered impacts of climate-related risks, in order to improve the Security Council’s capacity to maintain international peace and security. We therefore encourage the integration of such climate-security assessments in all mandated reports of situations on the Security Council’s agenda. We also advocate for the appointment of a special representative on climate and security to coordinate response efforts across all pillars of the United Nations system, as well as to strengthen the cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations to promote comprehensive action. We wholeheartedly agree with you, Mr. President — we cannot negotiate with nature. It demands institutional and behavioural change. As the death toll and destruction continue to rise globally, the root causes must be addressed. A part of the solution therefore necessitates accountability for major and historical emitters — super emitters, if you will — to commit to the terms of the Paris Agreement and to take the actions needed to keep temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Additionally, we call on developed countries to honour climate-finance pledges as a floor and not a ceiling. Climate finance is crucial to the urgent adaptation and mitigation needs of affected countries before the window of opportunity for decisive action is gone and the hard-won security gains are erased. Yes, action is all that counts now.

We thank the Assistant Secretary-General as well as the briefers for their contributions on this matter. South Africa’s strong commitment to a collective, multilateral response to the existential challenge of climate change remains unwavering, and we are redoubling our efforts at the continental and national levels to address the crisis, even during the current coronavirus disease pandemic. South Africa recognizes that extreme weather events, drought, water scarcity, food insecurity and desertification, which are thought to be exacerbated by climate change, have the potential to increase the risk of violent conflict, either within sovereign States or across State boundaries. In Africa, there is some evidence to suggest that this may be the case in parts of the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin, as well as the Horn of Africa. In these specific instances, climate change is a threat or risk multiplier that escalates existing tensions and conflict by placing strain on already scarce resources. Notwithstanding these instances, there is currently little scientific evidence to support the more generalized conclusions of a direct causality between climate change and threats to international peace and security. South Africa therefore remains wary of introducing climate change into the Security Council as a thematic issue, or adopting generic decisions in this forum. Instead, where climate change is thought to be a clear contributing factor to a threat to international peace and security, it is appropriate for the Security Council to comment on this issue, within the specific context of the countries that may be affected. Even in those circumstances, the contribution that the Security Council can make is modest and unclear. We therefore welcome this opportunity to hear ideas from Council members as to what that contribution could be. It is important to emphasize that climate change is a sustainable development issue that needs to be addressed through the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with assistance to Member States from multilateral bodies dedicated to effectively supporting all three pillars of sustainable development — economic, social and environmental. The key to addressing climate change is to secure international collaboration to take the necessary mitigation and adaptation measures and to ensure that all developing countries that require means of implementation support or assistance in responding to the loss and damage caused by climate change receive such support. Insofar as there are security implications to climate change, these are likewise best addressed through massively scaled-up, appropriate and accessible climate- adaptation and mitigation-related support to the affected countries. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) holds the primary mandate and capabilities to galvanize that type of action by the international community, particularly since the UNFCCC enjoys universal membership, operates by consensus and adheres to its principles, including equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. To introduce climate change as a thematic issue on the agenda of the Security Council would, in our view, risk diffusing the importance of the UNFCCC and detract attention and resources from its essential work. We also think that there are reasonable questions about when and on what scientific basis the Security Council would invoke climate change as a contributing factor to a specific conflict situation and where precisely the Security Council draws the line with respect to incorporating environmental issues into its agenda. Certainly, climate change is but one of several serious environmental challenges with potential peace and security implications, and we need to guard against mandate creep by the Council, or the Council outpacing its own resources and capacities. We do not wish to downplay specific climate-related security risks, which the Security Council has progressively acknowledged in various outcomes over the years and which have received enhanced analytical capacity in the United Nations system, most notably in the Climate Security Mechanism of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. Rather, our message is that the international community needs to channel its resources effectively through the bodies in the United Nations system that are most fit for a particular purpose. We nevertheless welcome the opportunity of this meeting to explore proposals to enhance the capacity of the Security Council to better respond, as appropriate, to climate-related security risks. In conclusion, we would urge, as always, that these risks be considered in the context of close partnerships with regional organizations, including the African Union, and that we seek creative, cost-effective means of utilizing existing resources and avoid generating new mechanisms that could entail significant costs and additional burdens for already strained operations.

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). I wish to thank you, Minister Maas, for your personal invitation to participate in today’s debate. I also want to acknowledge and applaud the leadership of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Dominican Republic on the Council. Their work is a testament to the unique and valuable perspectives that small island developing States can bring to bear on the pressing peace and security issues of our time. For the past 30 years, AOSIS has been the single-most consistent advocate on climate. Over that span of time, we have pressed for ambitious action through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, which remain today the primary international forums for determining the global response to climate change. There is no doubt that we have turned a corner in our collective efforts with the Paris Agreement, but we have certainly not yet done the same for global warming. Current modelling confirms that global warming could exceed 3°C to 4°C by the end of the century and that small island developing States (SIDS) face the certain prospect of increased loss and damage, the extent of which could render some of our islands entirely uninhabitable. That is why for SIDS the climate calculus is perhaps the most relevant indicator of our development and our security. The good news is that we all have the option to do something about that calculus. In Paris we all committed to taking the emissions curve and bending it towards 1.5°C. We all committed to doing our fair share, and progressively so, with developed countries committing to taking the lead and to making good on their obligations for new and additional financing. We all agreed that we must measure our ambition against the benchmark of protecting the most vulnerable, because we believe in equity and in justice. These principles are foundational to the United Nations and its enduring objectives, which all Member States serve. They are what drive us to advance social progress in larger freedom. They are the compass for every action upon which we deliberate — from development to human rights and peace and security. As the Council deliberates today on its options for improving its capacity to integrate climate considerations into its work, on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States I wish to provide three core messages. First, it is of paramount importance that Member States reaffirm their unequivocal commitment to upholding the Paris Agreement and to taking bold and decisive action to enhance their medium-term and long-term climate plans. AOSIS would welcome a further commitment from the permanent members of the Council to delivering ambitious targets in the communication of their nationally determined contributions for 2020. Secondly, with the impacts of climate change unfolding at unprecedented rates, dealing indiscriminate consequences for the most vulnerable, the Council should promote adaptation as a prevention paradigm, as well as supporting the urgent need to strengthen the international framework for addressing loss and damage. The climate-induced risks to international peace and security and associated humanitarian consequences are emerging and escalating due to the lack of a comprehensive and robust mechanism to address these impacts, which go well beyond our limited capacities to adapt. Thirdly, time is running out and the required institutional responses are lagging. All relevant organs of the United Nations system should be informed and equipped to deal with the worst-case scenarios, respecting their respective roles and mandates. AOSIS has made three proposals for improving the Council’s approach to integrating climate-related security risks into its work: apply the best available science; enhance United Nations analytical capacities to assess climate threats; and enhance multi-stakeholder coordination to enable systemic support to the most vulnerable groups in society. These are particularly important as a number of the special political missions deployed by the Department for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs are in the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. The capacity to conduct comprehensive, in-depth analysis that is specific to the situations in each country is critical for informed decision-making. We welcome progress made across these areas, including the joint initiative to address climate-related security risks, and the toolbox developed by the Climate Security Mechanism. However, we believe there is still room for improvement, particularly in ensuring a more transparent and science-based approach in the guidance. Further actions are also still required to operationalize the four action areas for the United Nations system outlined in line with the Paris Agreement, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. There is also scope for enhancing the Climate Security Mechanism for better coordination with all relevant stakeholders, including women, youth and indigenous communities, to ensure a more inclusive and integrated approach. I wish to make a final proposal to the Council in light of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic exposes a whole range of compounding risks that could exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and challenges, including climate change. It has completely shifted the global risk landscape, leaving us severely underprepared to deal with the repercussions. We must draw from lessons learned and adapt the United Nations system to ensure that history does not repeat itself. International research has shown that 75 per cent of ongoing infectious diseases are zoonotic in origin. Hence, we call for a cessation of irresponsible and unethical practices that may cause interruptions to the natural order of ecosystems. We wish to stress that environmental accountability and the safeguarding of our natural heritage are crucial to the survival of humankind and of the planet. Further, in light of the anticipated contraction in the gross domestic product of most countries as a result of this global pandemic, the AOSIS membership reiterates the significance of the promotion of low-emission and ocean-based economic policies as a means to revitalize the global economy. In closing, small islands developing States have expressed a firm and collective call for robust and urgent action to align COVID-19 pandemic recovery and climate action. The resilience we need and system-wide adaptation required to respond to COVID-19 are directly relevant to the resilience we need and system-wide adaptation required for climate change. Moreover, COVID-19 reminds us that human health and planetary health are inextricably linked. We further stress the need for ambitious and urgent actions from all States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to address the biggest global challenge of our time, in line with the Paris Agreement goals and 1.5°C pathway. That ambition has been and remains our red line and it is reinforced by international law. We further call on our developed country partners to marshal the necessary resources so that developing countries, in particular small island developing States, can be assured access to adequate, predictable and additional finance, technology and capacity- building. It is imperative that the commitments and obligations undertaken, whether under the Paris Agreement or other international conventions relating to climate change, be fully implemented. International solidarity and cooperation, multilateralism and strong partnerships are more essential now than ever to overcome the multitude of crises we face. We ask all Council members to stand not behind us, but by our side, in the name of equity and justice, as we fight this battle to secure a safer and more prosperous future for the planet and its people.

I thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership over the last several years on this issue. Ireland aligns itself with the statement of the European Union on climate and security (see annex 18). As the Secretary-General recently reminded us, by 2050 accelerating climate change will affect hundreds of millions of people through malnutrition, disease, migration and extreme weather events. It is self-evident that such a profound disruption to the lives of so many will affect the stability and security of our societies. The coronavirus disease and its broader societal and economic impacts look set to exacerbate this disruption universally. The science is clear. Without concerted action, global temperatures will continue to rise. While we must endeavour to do all we can to limit further warming, we also need to understand, prepare and react to this ever-changing reality. We cannot simply ignore that climate change presents a real and immediate challenge to our peace and security. This link is being factored into the planning of armed forces around the world and it is urgent that the international community formally acknowledges this reality. Climate change on its own does not cause conflict. However, it will intensify social, economic, demographic and political challenges. Unpredictable weather patterns in the Sahel are exacerbating conflict dynamics, rising sea levels threaten the very existence of some small island States represented in this meeting. While risks vary across distinct geographical regions, a constant is that the impacts are acutely felt by the most vulnerable, who, ironically, did least to contribute to climate change in the first place. Therefore, protecting vulnerable populations and safeguarding human rights must be part of our response. More effective risk- assessment and management strategies will help us better understand local climate and security contexts and build early-warning systems. We must complement our global efforts by reinforcing local and regional institutions. The work of the African Union has demonstrated the importance of this. We should design our climate interventions and conflict-resolution mechanisms with local ownership at their heart, strengthening institutions and consensus-building forums. Robust analysis must inform the work of the United Nations across all its operations. We call on the Secretary-General to fulfil the request of the presidential statement of 20 July 2011 (S/PRST/2011/15) to include contextual information on the possible security implications of climate change in his reporting to the Council. The Climate Security Mechanism is an important start in bringing together the different elements of the United Nations system. This needs to be built upon. We support the appointment of a special representative on climate and security, which would further reinforce these efforts. In our peacekeeping work, we cannot just ignore the fact that, irrespective of mandate, our peacekeepers are often responding to climate-related crises. We support the full implementation of the Department of Field Support’s Environment Strategy to ensure that peacekeeping operations do not exacerbate the environmental strain on local populations. We urge Council members to continue working to enhance the inclusion of climate-related security risks into peacekeeping operation mandates. Ireland has a strong engagement on the women and peace and security agenda, which is interconnected with the climate security agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. To ensure climate justice, we must place the distinct experiences of women, youth and children at the heart of analysis, response and peacebuilding efforts. The Peacebuilding Commission is well situated to collaborate with the Security Council to integrate a climate resilience lens in conflict-affected countries and post-conflict reconstruction efforts. In conclusion, all United Nations agencies have a role in addressing the myriad of challenges related to climate change, the main forum for that being the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. The Security Council must play its part by addressing the peace and security challenges of climate change that are undoubtedly now present and by rallying the United Nations system as a whole. I welcome the announcement of the establishment of an informal group of experts of the Security Council on climate and security. This debate is a crucial step forward in that process. As an incoming elected member of the Security Council, Ireland will seek to advance further progress on that agenda.

Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to his Excellency Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, for his kind intervention and for convening this important meeting. We also express our gratitude to the briefers and to all the countries that have co-sponsored this important event. The topic under discussion is very dear to my country, Kenya. As the Council may be aware, Kenya hosts the only United Nations headquarters in the global South, housing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat. That is why we continue to call for the allocation of more resources and the progressive consolidation of the functions of the Nairobi office to efficiently deliver on its mandate, which includes tackling the pressing challenge of climate change. Climate change, as we know and as we have generally agreed, is an existential threat to most of our States. It is already having an impact on peace and security, not only as a risk in itself, but as a risk multiplier of conflict, insecurity and State fragility. We know that climate change makes things worse. It exacerbates water scarcity and food insecurity. It increases the prevalence of disease and leads to intercommunal conflict over resources. In addition, it brings about the forced migration of communities and the haphazard urbanization of many areas in Africa. That is quite evident in the Horn of Africa, where many States are confronting extreme climate events, the coronavirus disease, terrorism and the worst infestation of locusts in the past 70 years. Climate change pushes State capabilities to the limit. We know the impact of climate change, but despite the mounting evidence of global warming, our response as a community of nations has been plagued by doubt and reversals, making it difficult to progressively move to a low-carbon pathway, which is critical to saving our planet. It is not enough to continually narrate the problem. It is not enough to emphasize what is wrong. We must move away from the arena of rhetoric towards one of real concrete action. In that regard, we would like to offer some recommendations. First, there must be broad acceptance of the nexus between climate change and peace and security. That is something that is not always easy to agree on within our community of nations. Secondly, there must be a commitment to the climate change responses that are exemplified by key relevant international instruments, which we all must endeavour to ratify. Those include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In other words, we must walk the talk. Thirdly, as I mentioned initially, we need to strengthen the institutions that have a huge mandate in the area of climate change. Here we wish to emphasize the role of UNEP and UN-Habitat in Nairobi. Fourthly, it is important that countries show commitment at the national level. In that regard, I am proud to say that in Kenya we have put into place policies and legal climate change frameworks, as well as a national climate change action plan to mainstream climate actions into our development planning processes. Fifthly, it is absolutely essential that we find the nexus between the battle against climate change and the push for development. In Kenya, we are trying to recalibrate our development agenda by promoting the idea of green energy and a green economy. Kenya is a leading producer of green energy and has committed to planting 2 billion tree seedlings by 2020 in order to restore 1.5 million hectares of land that has been degraded and deforested. There is still more that can be done to promote more active participation by the Security Council. In that regard, we call for an improvement in our early-warning and predictive systems, which will enable us to identify and to map climate change hotspots in order to procure critical and verifiable data to enable decision-making and conflict prevention at the level of the Security Council. We are clear that if we wish the Council to act effectively, it must have facts and data. That requires a better utilization of Earth observation technologies and scientific research. In that connection, we wish to commend the Federal Republic of Germany for producing an excellent climate risk and foresight assessment report that we believe is driven by science. But even as we call for more collaboration in that area among Member States, international organization agencies like UNEP, private sector research institutions and communities themselves, we must remember that there is a huge digital divide that leaves the developing world behind. Consequently, there must be financing and training to bolster scientific engagement in the developing world. More than this, there must be a democratization of access to critical data and a move towards more data-sharing in that area. In addition, we need to strengthen the linkages between the Security Council and regional and continental agencies, such as the African Union and other regional agencies, which have early-warning mechanisms that can provide timely information and analysis to the Council to bring about the transformation that we need. We must not forget that the impact of climate change is local. It is often community-based and individual. As we tackle climate change, we must therefore think locally and act globally. We also wish to encourage the Council to integrate the subject of climate change into its resolutions. We are beginning to see progress in that regard. In that connection, I note resolution 2349 (2017), on the Lake Chad basin, which recognizes the nexus between ecological changes and conflict. It is only when we are able to see the United Nations act proactively in restructuring the value systems that underpin peacekeeping operations and peace support missions that we will be able to see real action on the ground and real collaboration towards dealing with the nexus between climate change and peace and security. We must also rethink peace support missions and reconsider humanitarian action. We may need to retrain our peacekeepers to address climate change issues head-on in collaboration with national stakeholders to improve capacities in environmental restoration, build resilience within our communities, collect data and monitor environmental changes, as well as integrate the green economy and clean energy into State stabilization and reconstruction. If we want to build back better, perhaps we need to build back weak States on a green economy platform. Furthermore, let us not forget the role of women and young women as key actors in addressing climate change. For those of us who live in Africa and understand the power of women and the great impact climate change has had on women, it is essential that the issues of women, peace, security and climate change be brought to the centre of the thinking of the Security Council. It is essential that our women peacekeepers, for example, begin to collect gender-disaggregated data in order for us to really assess the impact of climate change and conflict on women. Finally, we wish to emphasize that the Security Council, as a guarantor of international peace and security, can provide the political will, leadership and courage that will enable us to tackle climate change risks head-on. Our country, Kenya, will be joining Security Council as an elected member for the period 2021-2022. A key portion of our efforts will be dedicated to advancing the environmental and climate change agenda, and we look forward to working with all Council members.

The European Union and its member States thank the 10 co-sponsoring members of the Security Council for organizing this important and timely open debate on climate and security. The candidate countries the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania; and the country of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina; as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this statement. This meeting is timely from a climate perspective, as new figures from the World Meteorological Organization show that the annual mean global temperature is likely to be at least 1°C above pre-industrial levels in each of the coming five years. We are approaching the crucial point of 1.5° far too fast. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has clearly demonstrated in its report Global Warming of 1.5°C the devastating effects such a temperature increase could have on the livelihoods and lives of people in many regions of the world. This meeting is also timely in the current pandemic context, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to hit countries across the world with unrelenting force, exposing and exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and compounding the impact of climate change on food and water security, livelihoods, social cohesion and security. That threatens to undermine development gains and human rights, as well as escalate violence and disrupt fragile peace processes. We simply cannot afford to lose our ambition in addressing the planetary crisis while fighting the pandemic, nor can we turn a blind eye to the consequences already materializing. That underlines the importance of enabling the Security Council to deal more systematically and effectively with the interlinkages between climate change and security. We have seen important progress over the past years. The analytical basis of the Security Council’s work on climate-related security risks has improved by the work of the Climate Security Mechanism in the Secretariat. The Mechanism should be strengthened further, as it brings together expertise from various parts of the United Nations system: conflict prevention and mediation, sustainable management of natural resources, climate change, resilience and gender. We call for a regular and systematic report by the Secretary-General to the Security Council in order to expand the analytical basis and recommendations for actions, including strengthening the ability of missions on the ground to integrate climate-related security risks into their preventive and reactive actions. The Security Council must continue to mainstream climate-related security risks into its consideration of country- and regional-level conflicts. Similarly, the United Nations peacebuilding architecture needs to be enabled to address climate-related risks, including those over diminishing natural resources. In that regard, the increase in water stress as a result of climate change is particularly pertinent, as it heightens the risk of conflict and undermining peacebuilding efforts. The same goes for the security implications of sea-level rise and extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts. For effective, integrated responses, the peace and security, development and humanitarian pillars of the United Nations must work closer together at all levels, in line with the nexus approach. We must also maintain our focus on the gender dimension. A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and UN-Women demonstrates the many ways in which gender inequality, climate vulnerability and State fragility are interlinked. Countries with a higher value in one of those areas tend to score higher in the other two. In his 2019 report on women and peace and security (S/2019/800), the Secretary-General declared an urgent need for better analysis and for concrete, immediate actions to address the linkages. It is also crucial to continue to include young people in the discussions and decision-making processes regarding climate and security. They are the ones who will be most affected by the impact of climate change. The European Union (EU) remains strongly determined to implement our commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, including through the EU Green Deal. We call on all partners to show the same determination on the road to the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. As the world’s biggest climate donor, much of our help seeks to combine adaptation to global warming and interventions to improve the sustainable management of resources with the prevention of conflict. I cite two very different examples of our support. The first is the Copernicus satellite, whose imaging is used both for instant life-saving responses to extreme weather event disasters — like the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean — and as an early-warning mechanism for climate impact threatening the livelihoods and even existence of coastal communities. The second is the EU’s many-year support of the African-led Great Green Wall initiative, aiming to restore degraded landscapes, address climate change concerns, and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest regions, the Sahel. In conclusion, the impact of climate change, like that of COVID-19, threatens us all. Just like the pandemic, addressing climate change needs a massive global effort, shared ambition and solidarity. And we need the entire United Nations system to be able to deal successfully with the different dimensions of climate change. Let us work together to ensure that all parts of the United Nations, including the Security Council, have all they need to fulfil their tasks properly.

I have the pleasure to submit this statement on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. We welcome today’s opportunity to discuss how best to provide the Security Council with comprehensive and authoritative information on climate-related security risks, and would like to highlight the following points. First, we encourage the Security Council to continue mandating peacekeeping operations and special political missions to consider climate-related security risks. That should include integrating a climate lens into mediation efforts and preventive diplomacy. In addition, we see strong merit in mandating a regular comprehensive report by the Secretary-General on the climate-security nexus. This could serve as an important platform for dialogue between Member States and the Secretariat. It is important to leverage the scientific findings of other ongoing processes such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in this regard. We welcome the efforts undertaken by the Climate Security Mechanism to map existing United Nations analytical tools, data and approaches and encourage further action on mainstreaming climate-related security risks in all United Nations efforts, including peacebuilding. We also encourage the Security Council to further strengthen the advisory role of the Peacebuilding Commission. In order to enable the United Nations to prevent the escalation of conflict, timely assessment of climate-related security risks is essential, and partnerships play a key role in this regard. First, it is essential that peace operations engage with local communities and authorities in an inclusive manner. Local knowledge and expertise are critical for effective policy analysis and to ensure that climate-change adaptation measures are designed in accordance with local needs and concerns, including those of marginalized groups, civil society, indigenous peoples, women and youth. Secondly, it is important that both the Security Council and peace operations engage with regional and subregional actors that can implement cross-border activities. Key partners include the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and subregional climate centres. Thirdly, it is essential that peace operations engage at the country level with both the security sector and non-traditional security actors in order to co-produce such risk assessments. This should include climate experts from the World Meteorological Organization and national meteorological and hydrological agencies. Building on the foregoing, the United Nations should develop multi-hazard early-warning systems that take into account both climate and security risks and allow for an integrated cross-pillar response. To that end, we propose including the assessment, reporting and management of climate-related security risks in leadership-evaluation frameworks and the reporting responsibilities of Resident Coordinators and mission leadership. We also propose building on existing early- warning mechanisms developed by the humanitarian community in United Nations peace operations planning. Climate-related security risks are closely tied to both the women and peace and security and the youth and peace and security agendas. Women are often disproportionately affected by climate-related security risks, but they also serve as key agents of change in climate-change adaptation and mitigation. Peacebuilding efforts should capitalize on these opportunities to strengthen the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution, as well as their economic empowerment. The youth of today will face the worst effects of climate change in future, and it is therefore critical to include youth in decision-making processes with regard to climate and security. In conclusion, we would like to reiterate that we are pleased to see the climate- security nexus receiving increased attention from the Security Council. We look forward to engaging further on this issue in order to ensure that the Council receives adequate and timely information on climate-related security risks.

I wish to thank the German presidency of the Security Council for inviting me to speak on the great challenge of our times: the very real impact the climate crisis has on security and the global response that is needed. Accordingly, I submit the following statement on behalf of Mr. Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister and Minister for iTaukei Affairs and Sugar Industry of Fiji. Fiji follows the work of the Security Council most closely. We directly participate in or support peace operations across the world. Our brave peacekeepers have learned from our engagements in many peace operations that the United Nations is devoting more and more effort and funds to peace operations in regions that face severe climate-induced pressures. This is not a coincidence. Ask any Fijian peacekeeper on the ground across the world, and he or she will say that water scarcity, droughts, cyclones, desertification and other natural phenomena that are directly related to climate change compound conflicts. They make competition for resources more intense. They help to radicalize disillusioned young people and increase the appeal and spread of radical ideologies. They make conflicts more protracted and political solutions more difficult to achieve. Fiji’s views are consistent. The climate crisis threatens peace and stability within States and is increasingly fuelling insecurity between and among States. For Pacific small island developing States, climate change is an existential crisis. Its impacts are deep and far-reaching for all our economies. It undermines our societal cohesion, affects food security and creates deep anxiety in our populations. It also threatens the sense of peace and security that we traditionally feel in our part of the world. Fiji and all Pacific island leaders have said to the global community that rising sea levels must not have consequences for the maritime boundaries of our ocean States. We did not cause the sea-level rise, and sea-level rise must not threaten, erode or limit our national sovereignty. As large ocean States, we depend on our oceans for our livelihoods. Yet warming oceans have triggered a large-scale displacement of migratory fish stocks from our exclusive economic zones into the cooler waters of the eastern Pacific. The loss to Pacific islands from this one situation alone is in excess of $1 billion per year — almost twice as much as the total annual official development assistance to the Pacific States. It is a devastating blow to the small economies of these island States and to their stability, and the threat is growing. While the Security Council expends much of its energy on long-standing geopolitical frustrations, we have a climate crisis that is persistently wreaking havoc across the Pacific. Try telling my colleague the Honourable Bob Loughman, Prime Minister of Vanuatu, that the Security Council will respond to the climate crisis at a slow pace. His nation is midway through a long recovery from super-cyclone Pam, which wiped out 70 per cent of Vanuatu’s economy in 2015. Earlier this year, Vanuatu was hit by super-cyclone Harold, and saw 30 per cent of its economy swept away. Vanuatu now faces a near-total collapse of the mainstay of its economy, namely, tourism, because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Vanuatu and Fiji are both contributing members of the global community, and we want to see solutions brought to trouble spots in the world. We appreciate the work of the Security Council. But we say: do not put climate on the back burner. We have the tools and the frameworks we need to win the fight against climate change. The world community must now ask if we have the institutional architecture and the will. Fiji and the Pacific islands speak out in the debate on climate and security because it affects us deeply and immediately. It is an existential threat that has a concentrated and unequal impact on all aspects of our lives, including our security. First is the human dimension of the crisis. Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and several other countries are already relocating communities away from their homelands, away from their fishing grounds, away from the graves of their ancestors and away from their traditional lands. Secondly, more and more of our arable lands and groundwater are being lost through salination and sea-level rise. Thirdly, as most of the world grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, the Pacific islands are tackling multiple health threats and managing more frequent and prolonged outbreaks of dengue, leptospirosis and other diseases, in addition to COVID-19. We are on a permanent war footing while we relocate health facilities and reinforce or rebuild other health facilities to make them more resilient. Fourthly, the Pacific islands’ energy, water, airports, wharves, roads and bridges — and all physical infrastructure needed to maintain and extend essential services — are all being threatened by the climate crisis. It is my hope that the Governments of the United States of America, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom — the permanent members of the Security Council — will hear our call. This is the war of our times. We do not have the luxury of choosing to ignore some crises while trying to confront others. We do not have the luxury of engaging in endless debates over the same regional conflicts that have frustrated this organ for decades while rising seas slowly swallow up national territories today. The Council’s core responsibility — the maintenance of international peace and security — is fundamental and will be fulfilled through sustained and accelerated progress in implementing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement is the single most important weapon that we have if we are to win this war of our generation. You, Mr. President, have requested guidance in shaping the work of the Security Council. To that end, let me make five proposals. First, I wholeheartedly support the call by Pacific island leaders for the appointment of a United Nations special envoy for climate and security. Secondly, I fully support the call by several Member States this morning that climate and security should be featured as a core and recurring agenda item for the United Nations. Thirdly, I urge the Security Council to work with all United Nations organs and the United Nations system as a whole to ensure that the peace and security dimensions of climate change are systematically mainstreamed in the work across United Nations agencies, programmes and funds as well as peace operations. Fourthly, as a long-standing troop-contributing country, Fiji urges the Security Council to work with States Members of the United Nations to prepare and better position our peace operations to operate in increasingly complex and climate- stressed peacekeeping contexts. Finally, I call on the United Nations to convene, at the earliest possible date, a summit of world leaders on the international peace and security consequences of climate crisis and on the United Nations response. The summit should seek the views of leaders on whether the existing international architecture is capable of responding to this challenge of our times.

As one of the co-Chairs of the Group of Friends of Climate and Security, I have the honour today to make a statement on behalf of this 51-member group. I thank Foreign Minister Maas for organizing today’s open debate and for his strong leadership on this crucial issue. The Secretary-General has described the climate crisis as the defining issue of our time. Sea levels continue to rise in tandem with temperatures. Severe flooding and droughts are increasingly common in many places. The number of people facing persistent food and water insecurity is rising, causing displacements. And climate change is contributing to a collapse in the world’s biodiversity, the full consequences of which we are only beginning to understand. Indeed, climate change constitutes an existential threat to societies across the globe. Its impacts are already disrupting the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, destabilizing local economies, social relations and political systems and exacerbating violent conflicts. Poor and vulnerable communities may be the most affected now, but there is no shortage of examples of even the most wealthy and resilient places in the world being overwhelmed. Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change will be difficult, but it is necessary. It will require dramatically scaling up financial and technical resources for adaptation and mitigation actions. At the same time, we must deal with the consequences of the climate crisis that are already affecting us today. We are deeply concerned at the global implications of climate change for peace and security, which will increasingly unfold in the years to come. Vulnerable groups, including women and children, will be disproportionately affected. Our citizens expect us to act, and they expect the Security Council, as the organ responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, to act now. While we recognize and support other efforts and processes taking place within different parts of the United Nations family — not least the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, with the Paris Agreement adopted under the Convention as the key international instrument for addressing climate change — we believe the Security Council must do more. Our meeting today follows on several previous initiatives by Council members since the issue was first brought to the Security Council’s table in 2007 (see S/PV.5663). Thirteen years later, some progress has been made. Twelve Security Council resolutions refer to climate-related security risks as a result of the engagement of a large number of States Members of the United Nations, both inside and outside the Council, including members of the Group of Friends of Climate and Security. However, there is still ample room for making the Council’s approach more robust and systematic. The Secretary-General famously said ahead of the 2019 Climate Action Summit: “don’t bring a speech — bring a plan”. We have brought both. We believe it is necessary for the whole United Nations system, including the Security Council, to step up its ambitions and follow up on words with concrete deeds. We call for a regular comprehensive report by the Secretary-General on the peace and security implications of the adverse effects of climate change in country- or region-specific contexts that may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security. Such reports should include an assessment of early-warning indicators and forecasts of climate-related security risks, as well as concrete recommendations for action by United Nations organs to address these risks. This would bolster the Security Council’s ability to detect, address and prevent looming crises and conflicts before they become a reality, which is one of the most important tasks of the United Nations. We encourage the Security Council to continue mandating peacekeeping operations and special political missions to consider climate-related risks in their activities. We sometimes hear that peacekeeping missions have more pressing issues to focus on than climate change. While this may seem true at first glance, in many ways the effects of climate change make it harder to keep the peace. It is hardly a coincidence that eight out of the 10 countries hosting the largest multilateral peace operations are located in areas highly exposed to the impact of climate change. We strongly support the Climate Security Mechanism led by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. Its work, including information- sharing and the development of tools to promote a common understanding of the interlinkages between climate change and peace and security, is crucial to mainstreaming this topic across the United Nations system. More information means better understanding and more adequate responses. We also support the appointment of a special envoy or a special representative for climate and security who could strengthen coordination among relevant United Nations entities in addressing climate-related security risks. We need to integrate a climate lens into mediation efforts and preventive diplomacy. Climate-related security risks are at the core of the conflict-prevention agenda. Member States, the Secretariat, the Security Council and United Nations missions must factor climate-related security risks into all conflict-prevention and peacebuilding activities. We expect them to do so with a gender-responsive approach. Research shows that the adverse effects of climate change could reverse the peacebuilding and development gains of countries in fragile contexts most affected by climate change. It is therefore imperative that we strengthen the nexus between peace and security, humanitarian assistance, human rights and development. We also need to reinforce partnerships with national and regional actors on climate-related security risks, including with civil society organizations and national weather services. They have invaluable direct knowledge of the security risks facing populations due to climate change. We welcome the initiatives taken by the African Union to both strengthen its own work on climate and security and to advance the partnership with the United Nations. To conclude, climate change is not just another risk to consider alongside many others; as both science and experience have shown, it is an existential issue, with the potential to threaten peace and security. As such, I once again reiterate the Security Council’s responsibility and obligation to do everything in its power to address it and act accordingly. While climate change entails risks, it also opens possibilities for cooperation. To address it, we need to work together, and we stand more ready than ever to do so.

The discussion on climate and security proposed for today’s open debate should give us all pause to reflect on the question at hand, but more so on the scope of the mandate, for the maintenance of international peace and security, given to the Security Council by the Charter of the United Nations. Climate change is a complex and non-negligible issue, which is being addressed by the international community and should continue to be considered within the international regime formed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and regulated by the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and the respective capacities of States. While remaining sensitive to the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable countries and considering ways through which development issues can be better integrated into peace efforts, Brazil is of the opinion that the international community must also avoid taking steps that could lead to an undesirable securitization of the climate change agenda. We should thus proceed with utmost caution before branding emerging concerns as outright threats to international peace and security. By recognizing that climate change has broad implications and multiple dimensions, Brazil emphasizes that the most significant and accurate relationship is not the alleged link between security and the environment. Climate change is above all an issue to be discussed within the context of sustainable development, as it requires simultaneous political, economic and social approaches, rather than security responses. As we move into the twenty-first century, dealing with issues as demanding and multifaceted as climate change, it is key that we remain watchful of the upsurge of discourses that are reminiscent of the so-called droit d’ingérence — the self- declared right to intervene in the affairs of sovereign States on dubious grounds. The use of controversial language such as “climate-security nexus” and “climate- related security risks”, is potentially misleading and can prove counterproductive to the goal of addressing the adverse effects of climate change. These terms might reinforce a fundamentally mistaken and even dangerous assumption that climate change inexorably leads to conflict. In fact, the outbreak of conflict often relies upon manifold structural factors, rather than one single indicator alone. Attempting to use military action as a preventive response to climate change is completely counterproductive. There is no precise tool that allows the international community to determine, with certainty, when and how environmental distress will eventually convert into potential security threats, since conflicts are context-specific and stem from a complex and interdependent set of factors. Experts have pointed out that, while it is a far-fetched proposition to establish an automatic, direct link between climate change and armed conflict, singling out one among several root causes of conflict might bring about simplistic answers to complicated matters, thus endangering the solution to threats to international peace and security in the first place. The Security Council must come to terms with the understanding that each individual conflict has its own specific underlying causes and that no one-size-fits-all formula applies when it comes to preserving peace. In other words, there is no single template for peace. The conditions that may lead a society to the paths of peace or conflict are complex in nature and require an in-depth understanding of the various social, economic and cultural fabrics in their unique specificities. The environmental dimension of sustainable development, on the other hand, can only be effectively addressed in conjunction with its social and economic components. It is therefore crucial to factor in the intrinsically indivisible nature of sustainable development. The purported climate-conflict nexus has yet another harmful side effect for our efforts to build and sustain peace — it encourages the development of a culture of security risk analysis, in which security risks tend to attract more attention than development priorities. From Brazil’s perspective, climate change and environment challenges are phenomena that lack any military context and can have no possible military solution. They are challenges that must be dealt with through development tools. We should rather acknowledge that they fall primarily under the development domain and should not be unduly securitized. Rather than investing further in securitizing the climate agenda, developed countries should channel energy and resources into fostering those financial mechanisms that aim to compensate the most vulnerable States for loss and damage due to climate change. In fact, it may be detrimental to international security if the countries listed in UNFCCC annex I do not take the necessary measures to meet their emission-reduction commitments. It is crucial that any thematic discussion on climate and environment issues remain open to the entire membership of the United Nations. It is incumbent on Member States to be watchful of the division of labour among the different bodies of the United Nations system, seeking synergies and complementarities, while retaining their respective mandates and competencies. The Security Council is mandated to deal with concrete, immediate threats to international peace and security. Therefore, it should, as a principle, abstain from adopting blanket statements on the proposed topic, opting instead for assessing threats to international peace and security on a case-by-case basis.

Costa Rica expresses its appreciation to the German presidency of the Security Council for having convened a debate of such global relevance and to Secretary- General António Guterres and the panellists — Colonel Mahamadou Magagi, Director of the Centre National d’Études Stratégiques et de Sécurité of the Niger, and Ms. Coral Pasisi, Director of the Sustainable Pacific Consultancy Niue — for their enriching contributions to our discussion. The climate emergency affecting our planet, which will be exacerbated by the socioeconomic impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, will undoubtedly have an effect on the status of current conflicts and will give rise to future ones, creating security problems where none existed. It is a global crisis that, contrary to what we expect to happen with the coronavirus disease, will instead worsen, since we are already approaching the brink and if we go too far, the consequences will be irreparable. If we do not act in time, we will witness the terrible reality that we have reached the point of no return and that we have not done enough. Acting now is a joint responsibility that requires multilateral solutions and international cooperation, involving the entire United Nations system, including the Security Council. Costa Rica believes that the issue of climate and security falls within the purview of the Council, not to extend its mandate to combating and preventing climate change, which is already adequately addressed within the United Nations, but to prevent and act in conflict situations. In that regard, it is important to have a system of periodic reports, which will enable the Council to be kept informed and updated on security risks. Similarly, we must establish a mechanism to alert United Nations institutions operating at the national level, including peace missions and special political missions, to security risks that could worsen existing conflicts. Climate change is a threat multiplier that compounds and exacerbates existing threats. If we do not achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, climate disasters will trigger the breakdown of social contracts from the local to the community level, undermining international agreements in the struggle for resources, and its impact on the planet will be more destructive than the bombs and the world wars. Just as we have called for a ceasefire and a halt to the financing of conflicts in the context of the pandemic and forever, not a single dollar of the recovery efforts should go to the fossil fuel industry. It is time to invest in sustainable practices rather than high-emission ones that destroy nature. We also call for the implementation of Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations and for the Security Council to ensure that the world’s already scarce resources are not diverted to armaments. In conclusion, the current climate emergency threatens people’s livelihoods and their very lives, leading to social unrest and conflict beyond national borders. If no joint action is taken, we will see the emergence of humanitarian crises, new conflicts and more threats to the maintenance of lasting peace.

Cyprus would like to complement the statement of the European Union by adding some national remarks. We welcome this open debate on an issue that is existential and we thank the German presidency and the co-sponsoring delegations for organizing it. Climate change is a threat in itself and a multiplier of challenges to peace and security. As a truly global challenge that knows no borders and is already impacting peace and security, climate change has the potential to create or exacerbate existing conflicts, increase the displacement of populations, further complicate existing political, social and economic crises, aggravate the availability of and tensions over resources, destabilize fragile post-conflict regions, roll back progress on development and human rights protection, induce migratory flows and exponentially increase the inherent vulnerability of small island States, which are already dealing with extreme phenomena that have the power to destroy their entire gross domestic product and whose very existence is threatened. As a country with part of its territory under occupation and an island State that has been experiencing the consequences of climate change for years, Cyprus is extremely concerned about the real threat to international peace and security. We are extremely concerned not only about our inability to protect the environment throughout our territory, because part of it is occupied, but also about the environmental degradation in our territory, which is occupied without any accountability for the occupying Power that is responsible for it. While environmental degradation in general and climate change in particular have been identified as a security threat for some time now, we have not progressed on incorporating it, along with other emerging non-conventional security threats, into the work of the Security Council. As it becomes clearer that we are not on course to meet the target of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, we need to begin work on the anticipated consequences of climate change. The Council needs to adopt a methodical approach in order to factor the security angle of this debate into its work, as part of a more comprehensive approach to security, and in order to ensure that it can respond to the threats facing us at any one time. We believe that the Council has a significant contribution to make, particularly with regard to the prevention of conflicts that can be anticipated as a result of climate change. Additionally, the Council can already start to consider the impact of climate change on the conflicts on its agenda. An important tool that the Council has at its disposal is the extensive United Nations presence globally and the peacekeeping operations that it has mandated. The Council could ask country teams to submit reports on conflict risks as a result of climate change based on a template that it would develop, and it could ask Member States to do likewise. It must, however, decide how it will act upon such information. In our view, the most important tool at the disposal of the Council is a preventive one and consists of encouraging Member States to use mechanisms, including judicial ones, for the peaceful settlement of disputes arising from climate change phenomena.

Scientific meteorological data, our own observations from the field in the countries of our diplomatic presence, especially in Africa and the Middle East, and reflection on our humanitarian interventions in the world make us very well aware of the ever-increasing effects of climate change on the lives of millions of people around the globe, with potential, or already existent, security implications, especially if combined with a context of fragility. This is the reason that the Czech Republic joined the United Nations Group of Friends of Climate and Security in May and pledged to actively participate in its work to contribute to the development of tools for the systematic management of climate-related security risks at the global level. The Czech Republic strongly supports the inclusion of debates related to the implications of climate change for international peace and security on the regular agenda of the Security Council. Many Council resolutions already acknowledge the link between climate change and a specific conflict. The close attention of the Security Council to the impacts of climate change on international peace and security would surely enhance global resilience to climate change. It would add to the effectiveness of international development cooperation efforts and to successful climate action. The Czech Republic thanks Germany, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, the Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam for organizing this open debate in order to contribute to the development of a United Nations system that is more effective in tackling the impact of climate change on international peace and security. We are persuaded that the periodic presentation of a global climate risk assessment report by the Secretary-General to the Security Council, based on scientific analysis and predictions and with recommendations for further action, would be another milestone in the building of a United Nations system that effectively responds to the security impacts of climate change. The United Nations system needs to further strengthen its capacities in relation to climate and security at all levels and across the whole United Nations system. Attention to capacity-building on climate and security and on climatology expertise at the local and regional levels in the framework of development cooperation is nevertheless important. It would enhance our ability to integrate climate-related security risk analysis through the inclusion of local partners. It would also strengthen ownership of climate-related risk management at the local and regional levels.

I congratulate you, Mr. President, on the way in which you have presided over the work of the Security Council during July, and I thank you for convening this high-level open debate on climate and security. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and its adverse effects are undermining the ability of all countries to achieve sustainable development. Climate change is real and disproportionately affects people in vulnerable situations, and its global nature requires urgent international cooperation. Global temperature increase, biodiversity loss, desertification, drought, sea-level rise and natural disasters threaten well-being, livelihoods and ecosystems. Their adverse effects generate food insecurity, unemployment, inequalities and social tensions and exacerbate threats to peace and security, undermining the progress made over the years towards achieving sustainable development. The humanitarian consequences of climate change are also devastating, including the loss of millions of lives, displacement, vulnerability to exploitation and the likelihood of marginalization. It remains alarming that people have to travel long distances to obtain food and water, jeopardizing their opportunities for education and work, and that young people risk being recruited into violent extremism. We stress that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the main intergovernmental forum with the necessary experience and expertise to negotiate a global response to climate change. We believe that the Security Council’s discussions on this subject are complementary so as to better understand the links between climate change and international peace and security and mobilize the capacities of the various bodies of the United Nations system within their mandates. We believe that the degree of ambition necessary to combat climate change requires increased provision of means of implementation — adequate financial resources, capacity-building and technology transfer — to developing countries. We reaffirm the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and the right to development. The international community is aware that impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity and the abusive and illegal wildlife trade can increase the transmission of zoonotic and infectious diseases, such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Earlier this month, it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a real impact on peace and security, which generates new vulnerabilities. We advocate prevention, capacity-building and resilience as essential components of disaster risk reduction to ensure preparedness and to build back better, as set out in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, a document that includes guidance and early-warning mechanisms to address climate- related risks. Peace operations personnel must have the appropriate resources, training, information and tools with regard to the adverse effects of climate change and national contexts in order to assess and contain conflict situations. The Security Council could recommend that the UNFCCC further explore the links between climate change and peace and security. Input from national institutions and Resident Coordinators is also valuable in order to be operationally prepared. Peace and security are indispensable to achieving sustainability. We hope that this open debate will mobilize political will and increased resources to combat the adverse effects of climate change, particularly as we overcome and recover from the pandemic.

At the outset, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the German presidency of the Security Council for organizing this important open debate. I would also like to thank the Assistant Secretary-General for his insightful reflections. We thank all the briefers. Climate change is one of the greatest threats of our time. Its multidimensional impacts are already upon us. Climate change-induced hazards, such as flooding, cyclones, strong winds, heavy rains, persistent drought and locust infestations, are decimating ecosystems on which millions of people depend for sustenance. The disruptive nature of these threats will affect not only human security but also our very existence. Extreme weather events are exacerbating existing communal tensions, intensifying inequality and diminishing the availability of and access to life-giving resources. The very existence of entire communities and hard-won development gains are under threat. Millions already rely on annual emergency humanitarian assistance due to climate change-induced disasters. The trend is projected to worsen in the coming decades. Indeed, failure to adapt to the risks associated with climate change-driven extreme weather events jeopardizes the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Our ability to end hunger and poverty, ensure access to sanitation and sustainable energy and guarantee decent work for everyone is dependent on concerted global actions against the impacts of climate change. Although the causality between climate change and security is still being debated, its centrality to socioeconomic development is indisputable. Climate change- induced stresses are inextricably linked to overpopulation, rapid urbanization, industrialization and environmental degradation. As such, managing climate and security risks entails addressing the root causes of underdevelopment, competition over increasingly scarce resources and the degradation of ecosystems, which often lead to communal tensions or conflicts. Among pastoralist and farming communities, the threat of tensions over grazing land and water points turning into recurring violence is ever-present. Reducing these tensions and the security impacts of climate change requires taking concrete actions to enhance community resilience and redoubling multilateral efforts to meet our commitments under the 2030 Agenda, Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The effects of climate change are not bound by national borders or the wealth of nations. All countries, large and small, rich and poor, are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. In fact, although their contribution is negligible, the least developed countries suffer disproportionately. It is a global phenomenon that requires an urgent and concerted global response anchored in the promotion of inclusive and sustainable development. The transboundary nature of the impacts of climate-related disasters compels us to cooperate across borders and coordinate our adaptation strategies for natural resource utilization and management. In this regard, we are glad that the United Nations, in recent years, has given due attention to this issue. This is an area where, we believe, the whole United Nations system should continue to strengthen its capacity. Different countries face specific climate change-related risks. The least developed countries, while vulnerable to severe risks, also lack the necessary tools for forecasting and early warning, as well as risk assessment and adaptation. The United Nations can help fill the gap by strengthening efforts to build common understanding and improve context-specific resilience, and by bolstering regional and national capacity to develop and implement climate change-adaptation and disaster risk-reduction strategies. It is not a sheer coincidence that eight out of the 10 largest multilateral peace operations are deployed in countries with high exposure to climate change. Hence, United Nations in-country resources, including peace operations and special political missions, are areas where the Council could play a key role in strengthening the capacity for adaptation and mitigation. The Council, in collaboration with relevant regional and subregional organizations, could also incorporate building resilience, managing climate change-induced security risks and supporting national adaptation strategies into peacekeeping and peacebuilding mandates. Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change-driven security risks. The Council could, for example, partner with the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Economic Community of West African States and other subregional organizations to conduct a comprehensive study on the climate change-security nexus and recommend an action plan on how to address associated conflict risks. Furthermore, as it develops a systematic approach to climate-related security risks, we hope that the Security Council will enhance support for AU-led efforts to tackle the effects of climate change in Africa by building on the existing AU-United Nations partnership on peace and security. The need for an integrated global approach and better coordination at national, regional and international levels in planning and responding to the impacts of climate change is critical. Ethiopia is experiencing the effects of climate change. Besides its direct effects, such as an increase in average temperature and a change in rainfall patterns, climate change presents the necessity and opportunity to switch to a sustainable development model. In this regard, our 10-year national development plan emphasizes the importance of building a climate-resilient green economy. As part of that plan, this week, the above-average inflow of the seasonal rainfall in the Blue Nile made possible the impoundment of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a monumental national project with enormous potential for regional integration. We are confident that we will soon reach an agreement with Egypt and the Sudan on its filling and annual operation, as an enduring symbol of cooperation and mutual interdependence. To mitigate and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and the deterioration of ecosystems, our development plan promotes climate-resilient green agriculture. We are also undertaking natural resource-conservation and -management activities, such as forestry development, and soil and water preservation. Last year, Ethiopia launched an ambitious afforestation programme, with a view to combating environmental degradation, deforestation and other effects of the climate crisis. Ethiopians from all walks of life responded enthusiastically, planting a record 350 million tree seedlings in a single day. The second planting season is under way in earnest, even despite the coronavirus disease pandemic. In conclusion, I wish to reiterate Ethiopia’s full commitment to accelerating the implementation of our international and regional commitments relating to the effects of climate change.

I would like to begin by thanking Germany and all the other co-organizers of today’s high-level event for taking up the important issue of climate and security and putting it high on the Security Council’s agenda. Georgia aligns itself with the statement to be submitted on behalf of the European Union (see annex 18). Let me add a few remarks in my national capacity. Climate change-related security risks have already become an everyday reality for millions of people around the world. There is growing evidence that climate change is a risk multiplier with the potential to threaten sustainable development and exacerbate conflict and instability. It can aggravate already-fragile situations, including through heightening competition for scarce resources, such as land and water, depriving populations of their livelihoods and inducing forced displacement. But the worst is yet to come, especially if we take a close look at the science. According to the latest report of the World Meteorological Organization, we are witnessing record global sea levels, coupled with the highest atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases and the hottest decade on record. These are existential challenges that can be addressed only through joint and resolute action, including by implementing our commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We believe that addressing security impacts of climate change should be on the Security Council’s conflict-prevention agenda. In this context, we appreciate the progress made by the Council in recent years towards greater recognition of the adverse effects of climate change on the stability and security of regions, which has been reflected in a number of thematic and country-specific resolutions. To play its part in this shared endeavour, Georgia is fully committed to the objectives of the UNFCCC and aligns itself with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the warming of the global climate system is unequivocal and the risks of dangerous climate change impacts will rise sharply if planetary warming exceeds 2°C from pre-industrial levels. We are also convinced that the Sustainable Development Goals — among which addressing climate change is embedded in Goal 13 — and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are the mutually reinforcing multilateral instruments for preventing impending cataclysm. With this in mind, we have prioritized Goal 13 at the national level and updated our nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement, aimed at reducing national emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. In addition, on 16 June, Georgia deposited an instrument of acceptance of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol. Lastly, to further reinforce our commitment, on 23 January, the Government established the Climate Change Council. The main purpose of the Council is to ensure the efficient implementation of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol thereto and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In conclusion, let me reaffirm Georgia’s commitment to multilateral efforts to address the impact of climate-related disasters on international peace and security and to our shared endeavour of mitigating the impact of climate change.

Guatemala would like to thank the Federal Republic of Germany, as President of the Security Council during the month of July 2020, for convening this high-level open video-teleconference on climate and security, as well as the Secretary-General and all the panellists for their presentations. Our delegation believes this topic is very relevant in the context of peace and security and needs to be addressed in a timely and comprehensive manner. Guatemala is a naturally megadiverse country, with an exceptional nature; however, owing to its geographical location, it is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change worldwide. During the past three decades, Guatemala has suffered continually from extreme weather events that directly impact agriculture and food security, affecting human life, child development, economic growth and health; causing an increase in migration and a loss of biodiversity; and affecting the cultural identity of indigenous peoples. Therefore, we understand and share the belief that there is an urgent need to intensify efforts at the international level for a more sustainable and climate-resilient development, which would contribute to the advent of more peaceful societies. We must keep in mind that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has the fundamental mandate in this area and that it is essential that all countries fulfil their commitments, especially regarding climate financing for adaptation and resilience, reduction of losses and damage, reduction of greenhouse- gas emissions, good governance and technology transfer. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change represents a milestone in that regard and, jointly with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, must guide the response and recovery from the coronavirus disease, pushing for more ambitious climate action. Despite the success of the various efforts made, the impact of climate change is real, and in that context the Security Council must also consider its negative effects within the framework of international peace and security mandates. I also want to highlight the importance of paying attention to the alarming message that the planet is sending us. The confinement to which most of us have been subjected has given a breath of life to our common home, the Earth. Climate change is a reality to which we cannot close our eyes. Climate change is one of the factors that intensify existing threats, tensions and instability. It is a challenge that threatens to overburden the most vulnerable countries and regions with fragile and conflict-affected environments. The risks that this entails are not only humanitarian in nature but also political and security-related. This requires re-evaluating and reinforcing cooperation and political dialogue and paying greater attention to the impact of climate change on security, which can be a key element in international relations, giving rise to a positive trend of improving global governance. Violent conflict is increasingly recognized as one of the main impediments to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Its dramatic resurgence over the past few years has caused immense human suffering and has had an enormous global impact. Violent conflicts have become more complex and protracted, involving more non-State groups and regional and international actors that are increasingly linked to global challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, cybersecurity and transnational organized crime. An effective management of natural resources will also have benefits in terms of environmental stewardship. In Guatemala, the management of protected areas was recognized by our Peace Accords of 1996 and is a successful example worldwide because it complies with international standards for the reduction of carbon emissions and the protection of forests while contributing also to the development of communities. There is an intrinsically symbiotic relationship between climate change and security: each threat exacerbates the other. As a peaceful country committed to nuclear disarmament and a defender of the total elimination of nuclear weapons, we are concerned that nuclear testing and nuclear-waste dumping might have destroyed some of our planet’s ecosystems beyond repair, displacing entire communities of animals and people in the process. The pollution of water and land around the world with this kind of waste will last far longer than we could imagine, with lasting negative consequences, including for our grandchildren’s lifetimes. This year we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime, and it is in our hands to work together with the common goal of leaving future generations a better world. Climate change is a global challenge that is still viewed mostly through the lens of development and environment, but it also represents an existing threat to international security and peace. In that regard, Guatemala welcomes the Secretary- General’s approach of addressing climate change as a system-wide priority in the Organization. The Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. The magnitude of the challenge of climate change is becoming more evident and requires thorough consideration by all members, permanent and non-permanent, of this body. Guatemala deems it important to promote policies and technical and scientific platforms to improve international governance so as to strengthen the capacity for risk analysis and contribute to early- warning mechanisms, which will benefit populations by increasing their resilience to the effects of climate change while respecting human rights and preventing conflicts. The Security Council should continue exploring ways to strengthen prevention, early-detection systems and operational actions to avert conflicts resulting from climate change, extreme weather events and natural resources management, taking into account community tensions and governance. Climate change requires specific actions, particularly in terms of cooperation among States to boost new capacities, focusing especially on developing countries to improve monitoring, reporting and verification systems, with a view to reducing disaster risk. Finally, Guatemala reiterates the importance of considering the interdependence of climate change efforts with the pillars of peace and security, development and human rights as a comprehensive approach to sustainable peace.

We thank the organizers for having convened today’s discussion on climate and security. The briefings by Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča; Colonel Mahamadou Magagi, Director of the Centre National d’Études Stratégiques et de Sécurité, the Niger; and Ms. Coral Pasisi, Director of the Sustainable Pacific Consultancy Niue, have been useful to understand the impacts of climate change on our planet. There is no doubt that climate change is a matter that requires our immediate attention. The choices we have made and will make will determine the climate of the future. The international community has come together and addressed issues of climate change through various mechanisms, central to which is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and now the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change. These are inclusive decision-making mechanisms that have tried to hammer out a global consensus on the bedrock of certain principles. Concrete action to combat climate change has also been taken by countries on the basis of those principles, foremost among which is that of common but differentiated responsibility, and through various collective decisions. Consequently, when we discuss issues relating to climate change and security, we need to first ask ourselves whether we are attempting to build an architecture where none of these principles is taken into consideration. When it comes to the securitization of climate change, for example, will it be acceptable if the Security Council holds Member States accountable for not implementing their nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement? Will countries be held accountable for not providing adequate climate financing? Will the Council make countries responsible for not sharing climate-friendly technologies? Climate change is a multidimensional issue, and viewing it through the narrow prism of security is akin to oversimplifying the issue and taking it out of context. Global warming and climate change are complicated and difficult issues currently being addressed through an inclusive and global process on the basis of focused action and broad principles. Instead of strengthening this approach, let us not redress the issue of climate change through punitive measures administered by the Security Council. In recent years, many Governments, organizations, scientists, institutions, policymakers and media in the developed world have put out a discourse that climate change will somehow lead to political instability, fights over resources, violent conflict, migration or even terrorism and radicalization. In addition, they say that these consequences will always inevitably begin in the already poor countries of the Global South, but their tide will reach the borders of the developed world. These are alarmist scenarios. Somehow, it is assumed by the promoters of the concept of securitizing climate change that, when an issue is portrayed as an existential threat, the general public becomes more amenable to accepting exceptional or extreme policy responses that are otherwise indefensible. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, in its chapter 12, on human security, has itself clearly stated that “the evidence on the effect of climate change and variability on violence is contested”. When causes of conflicts are oversimplified and one automatically assumes that climate change will lead to violent conflicts, then measures for preventing such conflicts — which actually have environmental, socioeconomic and political dimensions — can easily overlook them if they are dealt with as a security issue only. Let us not raise the alarm instead of raising ambitions. What the world needs instead is decisive action at every level to change the trajectory of the threat of climate change. While the need for action is immediate, it is vital to continue to reinforce multilateral efforts in parallel with individual ones. Such efforts need to recognize the diverse challenges and capabilities that countries in different parts of the world have. Accordingly, the response of those countries to climate change will vary depending on their national capabilities and responsibilities. Furthermore, the developed world, which is primarily responsible for global warming, has hardly fulfilled its pledges to finance climate-change causes in the developing world, nor has it made available carbon-removal technologies. Instead of putting in place a robust mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategy to minimize the negative impact of climate change on some of the most vulnerable countries, especially the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States, what we are witnessing is an activist move to shift the goalposts to securitizing climate change rather than taking positive climate action. India is a leading contributor of climate action. We have taken significant steps to fight climate change as a responsibility towards our planet. Over the past few years, we have reduced 38 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. We have set additional targets of eliminating single-use plastic by 2022 and having 450 gigawatts of renewable energy and restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. India strongly believes that the only way to generate persistent, long-term and positive action in the area of climate change is through partnerships and, instead of creating alarm, through undertaking sensible and collective action to make a lasting and sustainable impact. An example of how positive global climate action can be taken through partnerships is the initiative of the Prime Minister of India, along with the French President, to set up the International Solar Alliance. India has already committed $1.7 billion under our lines of credit towards solar projects in various countries. Prime Minister Modi has also taken the initiative to establish the Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure. The India-United Nations Development Partnership Fund is a practical manifestation of climate action and sustainable development in the spirit of South-South cooperation. Going forward, progress in combating climate change rests on converting awareness of the problem into action. It therefore falls upon this generation of Government, business and civil society to accelerate action individually and through collaboration. Each of us can make more climate-friendly choices to ease the transition to a carbon-free lifestyle: low-carbon homes, emission-free transport and organic diets, for example. But even more important, perhaps, is our power as consumers, voters, leaders and activists. Let us work together in the spirit of “the world is one family”. This is how India has always approached global issues. Let us view climate change as an opportunity to strengthen multilateralism and seek equitable and inclusive solutions to build a greener, cleaner and more sustainable world.

I am honoured to join this open debate of the Security Council on climate and security. Today’s discussion shows that this vital issue is at the heart of the international community’s concerns. I commend the Federal Republic of Germany and its predecessor, France, for taking the initiative of convening this open debate. I would like to thank the briefers for their presentations, which have helped us to define the context of our dialogue. We believe that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the optimal United Nations forum for discussing such issues. Nevertheless, we regard this debate on the risks of climate change as an international responsibility and a preventive measure necessary to avert such risks and crises at the national, regional and international levels. The debate will increase our awareness of the perils of climate change, which poses a challenge for the United Nations, whose role is based on the three pillars of peace, development and human rights. We believe that climate change can adversely affect those three pillars. The increasing temperatures at the Earth’s surface, even if not a direct or tangible threat in and of themselves, will certainly exacerbate other well-known risks. Such threats are more complex in certain regions of the world, including our own, as they hinder the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in our countries, in particular Goals 2, 6, 13 and 15. The lack of rainfall and the unsustainable use of water resources exacerbate the problem of water scarcity and further deplete the land’s vital resources, provoking displacement and migration. The United Nations knows of the alarming statistics on the number of people who are displaced or forced to migrate for economic and environmental reasons. Although the exact number of people who have met their fate at sea is unknown, the reasons for their migration are known to everyone at this virtual meeting and beyond. While we believe that climate change is a topic of interest to all countries, and one usually discussed from a global perspective, we wish to highlight the most important repercussions of climate change for the Middle East in general, and for Iraq in particular. It is alarming that the major river basins, especially in the Middle East, are subjected to great pressure and strain as a result of competition for use and control of shared water resources, in the absence of effective bilateral or multilateral conventions or regional frameworks governing the fair and reasonable use of shared water. This situation results primarily from an indifference to the principles of international law and its recognized terms of reference, which safeguard the rights of all coastal States. Climate change also plays a role. It would be fair for the international community to carry out a positive, preventive intervention in order to enhance viability and stability and to counter extreme changes in normal life in fragile ecosystems or areas vulnerable to climate change — that is, to support climate-change adaptation programmes. Such a step is not only necessary; from an environmental or an economic standpoint, it is less costly than attempts to settle migrants or to rehabilitate their abandoned land. By way of example, allow me to mention the grave deterioration of the environment of the Iraqi delta at the mouth of the Gulf, the famous waterway known as Shatt Al-Arab, which is portrayed as the historical location of the legend of Sinbad and, according to certain holy books and religions, was the site of the Garden of Eden. Owing to the decline in fresh water coming from its tributaries, it is a striking example of forced transformation, from a freshwater ecosystem characterized by biodiversity, fertile soil and dense forests of palm trees, into a predominantly saltwater environment. We cannot ignore the destruction by terrorists of civilian and water facilities in particular; terrorism is a global phenomenon, not a local one. Regardless of the different theories regarding the root causes of terrorism in many regions, the fact is that instability and economic and social fragility contribute to the spread of extremism, bigotry and vindictiveness. As a result, different approaches are needed to defuse tensions in volatile areas that are on the verge of an eruption. We therefore call for climate change adaptation measures to be integrated into efforts to address economic, social and political problems. Iraq commends the international community for taking a stand alongside it and helping to defeat terrorism on its territory. At the same time, it forcefully calls for its water rights to be respected and for the Tigris and Euphrates tributaries to be protected from annihilation; such efforts that would contribute in important ways to fostering security, peace and stability. On a related note, allow me to mention resolution 2421 (2018), in which the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) is renewed and in which, for the first time, the issue of water and the environment was included in the mission’s mandate. In that connection, on 21 February 2018, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General mentioned the issue of joint management of transboundary water resources. Accordingly, we hope that UNAMI will, first, monitor climate-related security risks and include them in the periodic briefings to the Security Council; secondly, organize workshops aimed at building Iraqi capacity so that climate-related security risks can be understood in the short and medium terms; thirdly, provide the support necessary to facilitate regional dialogue aimed at resolving water-related and environmental challenges; and fourthly, help the Iraqi authorities deal with climate- related displacement, economic vulnerability and social instability in the plan to rehabilitate areas liberated from the terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. To conclude, my Government wishes to relay the message that Iraq is seeking peace, security and development with neighbouring countries, and that it hopes to adopt an approach of joint cooperation among riparian States to share both the benefits and the burdens in a just and reasonable manner. Climate change is a global phenomenon that knows no political borders. Tension and instability can therefore be prevented through comprehensive regional approaches grounded in the provisions of international law; initiatives based on diplomacy among riparian States, such as water diplomacy and global security initiatives; and environmentally smart programmes. Such measures would create an environment conducive to defeating terrorism, accelerate the rebuilding of infrastructure in various sectors, and promote climate change adaptation measures and the sustainable management and use of natural resources.

Italy aligns itself with the statement submitted by the European Union (see annex 18), as well as with the statement submitted by the Group of Friends of Climate and Security (see annex 21), and would like to add the following remarks in its national capacity. Today’s discussion follows a series of various types of meetings — open debates, open briefings and Arria Formula meetings — organized by Security Council members since 2007, on the increasing interrelation between climate and security. Italy did its part in 2017 by organizing an Arria Formula meeting on preparing for the security implications of rising temperatures. In that regard, we very much appreciate the fact that, almost nine years after the milestone presidential statement S/PRST/2011/15, Germany is carrying on the discussion with today’s open debate on climate and security, as well as constantly spearheading the discussion within the Group of Friends of Climate and Security, co-Chaired with Nauru. We also commend the other co-sponsors for having been proactive, over these years, in bringing those topics to the attention of the Council. We hope that future Council members will also take the baton. Continuity is indeed key. The latest World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update report predicts that there is a is a 70 per cent chance that multiple months in the coming five years will be 1.5°C warmer than pre-industrial levels and a 20 per cent chance that the annual mean global temperature increase will exceed 1.5°C in at least one year. The world is clearly not on track to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C, as outlined in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Although the report does not explicitly focus on the security impact of climate change, it clearly underscores that a warming world will increase the risk of State fragility and instability. Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth are projected to dramatically increase with global warming above 1.5°C. The climate-related multidimensional challenges are exponentially more difficult in certain areas of the world. Africa is responsible for only 4 per cent of global carbon emissions. Yet, 57 per cent of the countries facing climate exposure and political fragility risks are located in sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahel and the Lake Chad basin are a glaring example of how climate change impacts security. The shrinking of the lake by 90 per cent since the 1960s has increased the competition for water and scarce resources, fuelling mass migration, trafficking and terrorism, with a multiplying effect that risks destabilizing the sub-Saharan and Mediterranean regions. Small island developing States also face the brunt of catastrophic events related to climate change. Climate hazards such as tropical storms and hurricanes, sea-level rise and ocean acidification, when superimposed on existing economic and security vulnerabilities, can lead to crises well beyond the capacities of Governments to manage. Climate change did not pause because of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Instead, while there are no known direct links between climate change and COVID-19, we will likely see an increase in the spread of vector-borne diseases as climate change intensifies. As temperatures increase, those species will be able to survive in countries and regions in which they previously could not. Climate change also poses a direct threat to our health, and epidemics and pandemics are a trigger for increased instability. In the light of that scenario, we stress the need for intensifying and accelerating international action against climate change. Climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience efforts are increasingly urgent if we are to avert the significant security consequences of climate change. In response to the pressing calls of the Secretary-General, we should redouble our efforts to ensure a prompt and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change by building up political momentum as we mark its fifth anniversary and by effectively promoting ambitious nationally determined contributions and enhanced financial commitments on the road to the events in Milan from 30 September to 2 October 2021, prior to the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Milan and a successful Conference in Glasgow in November 2021. Future regional security conferences that explore the climate and security dimensions and take place before Glasgow could play an important role in putting into focus relevant issues related to climate and security. Greater involvement of foreign and defence ministers in overall climate action could also more beneficially and specifically address the interrelations between climate and security. Italy will aim at enhancing synergies among the different multilateral forums and processes, leveraging its role as incoming President of the Group of Twenty. Although fragile regions face the most severe consequences in the short term, the security risks related to climate change are global and interconnected. Nobody gets to hide to weather this storm. On the eve of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, many modern security challenges do not fit neatly into the original constructs of the international security and governance architecture that was born after the Second World War. Environmental degradation and, most prominently, climate change defy national borders. The world must therefore plan for concerted, coordinated action to predict, prevent and prepare against those foreseeable cross-border threats. Predicting requires the technical capacity to anticipate the most serious consequences of climate change through reliable information and relevant science and technology. In that regard, much progress has been made over the years, notably through the deployment of satellite technology to better monitor weather changes, rainfall patterns, soil moisture, humidity, glacier-mass balance and river flows, thus enabling a precise assessment. The WMO report, for example, is based on the data collected through the Copernicus Climate Change Service managed by the European Union (EU). Another example is the Galileo programme, a global navigation system created by the EU, to which Italy actively contributes and which has ground-operation centres in Italy and Germany. Preventing means being proactive in defusing climate-related threats — in other words, passing from risk identification and risk assessment to action. The Climate Security Mechanism launched by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme, is a very timely and effective means to incorporate in a systematic way the analysis of climate-related security risks and promoting a supportive response. But preventing is still, by far, the most difficult part, as it requires the capacity and willingness to invest resources with a long-term perspective and gender mainstreaming by addressing the root causes of conflict and effectively using the tools of preventive diplomacy and enhancing or repurposing development assistance to climate-proof vulnerable areas that are likely hotspots of instability. That is a much harder task as the world focuses full tilt on the COVID-19 emergency response and socioeconomic recovery. Preparing also means using the available information to strengthen risk analysis and risk assessment. It implies incorporating risk assessment of climate-related threats into strategic-level policy decisions at multilateral, regional and national levels — mapping the areas where risks are higher and trying to routinize, institutionalize, integrate and elevate the response. Our Arria Formula meeting in 2017 was mostly dedicated to that dimension. We were also particularly active on those aspects in the course of our 2017 presidency of the Group of Seven (G-7), when we presided over the G-7 Working Group on Climate Change and Fragility. As we have seen first-hand with the COVID-19 crisis, global shocks are abrupt. With climate change, we have a clear scientific warning that a potential global shock could have consequences far more devastating than the COVID-19 pandemic. We are in a position, therefore, to predict, prevent and prepare.

I would like to express my appreciation to Germany for organizing this meeting on climate and security. Climate change, like the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), poses a threat to human security worldwide. It is of a different nature than the armed conflicts that the Council has always dealt with. However, as recognized in resolution 2349 (2017), on the Lake Chad basin region, climate change and ecological changes, among other factors, do have adverse effects on regional stability. Japan regards climate change just as it regards COVID-19 — through the lens of human security. The security implications of the effects of climate change and the climate-related security risk, referred to in the concept note (S/2020/725, enclosure) should be measured, in Japan’s view, by the level of burden they impose on people’s survival, livelihood and dignity. Adverse effects of climate change, such as water scarcity, drought, desertification, land degradation and food insecurity, severely impact the people in the Sahel and other arid regions. Sea-level rise and the erosion of coastlines threatens those in small island developing States, particularly in the event of large tropical cyclones such as Cyclone Harold, which hit the Pacific islands in April, and Hurricane Dorian, which ravaged the Caribbean coasts last summer. Citizens living in the temperate zone, including Japan, also suffer almost every year due to floods and landslides triggered by torrential rainfall. In every corner of the globe, climate- related natural disasters are compromising human security. In some places where communities lack resilience, they become multiplier of risk for peace and security. In order to address the various challenges to human security, including those that may cause social instability, which could, in turn, impact peace and security, we need people-centred, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented responses that strengthen the protection and empowerment of all people and all communities. We also need to consider and take comprehensive action — beyond sectoral silos — that fully take account of the interlinkages between peace and security, sustainable development, humanitarian needs and human rights. Recognizing that climate change is a threat to human security and global prosperity, as well as one of the complex contemporary challenges to international peace and security, Japan has promoted dialogue with seriously affected countries through the processes of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting and the Japan-Caribbean Community framework. Japan committed to providing ¥1.3 trillion in 2020 — around $11.8 billion — to support developing countries affected by climate change. Any effort to minimize the negative impact of climate change on human security and social stability, including the climate-related security risk, must take mid- to long-term measures to promote sustainable development. Treating the symptoms alone will not suffice to stop climate change or conflict. Unless we build societies that are resilient, sustainable and free of inequality through the virtuous cycle of environment and growth, we cannot achieve peace and security. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction serves as the most effective instrument to build communities with resilience against natural hazards caused by climate change. Doing our best to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, even in countries affected by conflict and in fragile situations, is the key to social stability. In conclusion, I wish to emphasize that the United Nations must play a leading role in furthering international cooperation for robust action against climate- related risks in all their aspects. Japan will be an unwavering and active partner in that endeavour.

We thank Germany and the co-sponsors of this timely and extremely important open debate. The enormous security challenges posed by climate change are a concern to all, hence the importance of this debate. The ministerial format of this meeting testifies to the urgency of this topic, and we express our appreciation to His Excellency Heiko Maas for presiding over this open debate. Climate change is a threat multiplier for the current global challenges, whether geopolitical, economic or social. In order to effectively tackle the climate crisis, the response should be integrated with sustainable development and safeguarding livelihoods, economies and ecosystems. Merging climate change and security solutions into a coordinated, whole-of-Government approach is a substantial step towards real resilience. The human consequences of climate change are enormous and of historic proportions, especially on migration. According to recent studies cited in the New York Times Magazine this week, hundreds of millions of people are forced by extreme heat and drought to choose between flight or death, thus resulting in the “greatest wave of global migration the world has seen”. According to the World Bank, more than 8 million people have moved towards the Middle East, Europe and North America as a result of monsoon rainfall and drought, which are a consequence of climate change. The same New York Times Magazine issue warns that “[i]n the African Sahel, millions of rural people have been streaming toward the coasts and the cities amid drought and widespread crop failures. Should the flight away from hot climates reach the scale that current research suggests is likely, it will amount to a vast remapping of the world’s populations”. This is very alarming for all of us, but particularly for developing countries. It is alarming for it has human, economic and security dimensions with which our countries are not equipped to deal. For instance, forced migration due to lack of resources or extreme weather events might top up the current displacement crisis already ongoing in Lebanon. This will only exacerbate food security and basic services infrastructure. This multiplier effect puts Lebanon on a risky path and makes it less likely to secure peace. Implementation and compliance remain fundamental. The implementation of the nationally determined contributions to satisfy the Paris Agreement temperature goal will result in fewer climatic disasters, inherently reducing the need for adaptation and therefore safeguarding peace. Greater enhanced cooperation is essential. We believe that formal and solid cooperation between the Security Council and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could be established to share findings and streamline the response to climate risks. Greater preparedness is needed. In this regard, the IPCC’s work cannot be overlooked. It includes the mapping of climate risks and vulnerabilities per region. It would be worthwhile to mainstream these scientific findings in the Security Council’s work on conflict risk. Conflict hotspots could be identified or reprioritized depending on climate vulnerability areas identified by the IPCC. The road map of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and its local implementation in vulnerable countries could also be an entry point for enhanced preparedness in potential conflicts caused by extreme weather events. We need to increase awareness on the probability and geography of climate events. Climate impacts are not the same across countries, and some are more at risk than others. Increased climate-risk information, coupled with a thorough understanding of local readiness, would be a first step towards mobilizing resources and increasing the Council’s preparedness. According to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the planet could see a greater temperature increase in the next 50 years than it had in the last 6,000 years combined. This would be the greatest threat to life on Earth, human and natural alike. Today, the emblem of our country, Lebanon’s iconic cedar trees — the Cedrus libani — are under threat of disappearing because of climate change. If nothing is done to reverse the adverse impact of climate change, they could disappear by the end of this century. This is a reminder, if one were ever needed, that climate change can also be a threat to millenary symbols, a culture, and the history of a country or a region.

I thank you, Mr. President, for using your presidency of the Security Council to bring the key issue of our time to our attention today. We hope that this open video-teleconference will advance the Council’s consideration of the climate and security nexus, which is badly needed. In order to understand how delayed the Council is in taking account of the climate and security nexus, it is worth considering how the other principal organs of the United Nations have expressed themselves on this linkage. The Secretary- General’s report on climate change and its possible security implications (A/64/350), submitted to the General Assembly nearly 11 years ago, forecasted increased involuntary migration, intra-State conflict over water resources and territorial disputes, as well as food and water insecurity as a result of climate change. As acknowledged in the concept note for today’s debate, “effects of climate change can lead, inter alia, to food insecurity, largescale displacement and social tensions, exacerbating, prolonging or contributing to the risk of future conflicts” (S/2020/725, enclosure, para. 2). Indeed, we see these dynamics today in situations on the Council’s agenda, including in Yemen, where the decreasing ability to grow food and access clean water caused by climate change is exacerbating suffering; in the Lake Chad basin, where diminishing water supplies have led to conflict between farmers and herders and spurred migration; and in Somalia, where increasing droughts have led to an absence of livelihood options and to greater poverty, in turn sparking and prolonging conflicts. It is more than urgent for the Council to address the impact of climate on its work along these lines, given, in particular, the rapid downward spiral on climate change over the past decade. However, the Council should do more than this. It has so far treated the issue of climate inconsistently, and as a secondary factor. Its resolutions that refer to climate relate to country situations on the African continent and only as an aggravating factor or intensifier for other sources of conflict. But as the Secretary-General’s report explains, climate change is not only a threat multiplier, it is the root cause of insecurity for hundreds of millions of people inside and outside of situations on the Council’s agenda, and is by no means limited to Africa. Many Member States fear the mass destruction caused by extreme weather events, of which global warming has dramatically increased the probability, or sea- level rise, which at today’s projections will make entire States uninhabitable or made simply to vanish within our lifetimes. Indigenous peoples remain at particular risk from the radical alteration of ecosystems and habitats due to climate change. The direct effects of global warming itself constitute an existential threat for many the world’s States and peoples. What could be more relevant to peace and security? One argument we hear from those opposed to a systematic focus on climate and security is that the Security Council is not the best placed of the United Nations bodies to address it. Liechtenstein acknowledges the expertise held in various United Nations bodies on this issue and encourages the Council to make increased use of the capacities and capabilities that exist across the United Nations system in order to improve its understanding of the climate and security nexus, notably the Climate Security Mechanism of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. However, the underlying argument for opposing Council work on climate is a security paradigm with an exclusive focus on hard security that has long been outdated and, in the course of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, amply illustrated to be so. The Security Council runs a concrete risk of further paralysing itself in the role as guardian of peace and security if it does not embrace a broader notion of security that reflects the reality in which we all live. The present human security threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic must be an additional reason for the Council to address climate change. Economic lockdowns may have contributed to a temporary slowing of emissions, but efforts to restart economies quickly must make use of the cleanest forms of energy generation possible, in order to avoid a relapse and possible further setbacks. Building back better in response to the pandemic also means building greener, more sustainable economies. COVID-19 has also brought to global attention the need for responsible human stewardship of global biodiversity, combined with such challenges as the illegal wildlife trade. The concept note for today’s debate highlights the need to pursue an approach to climate-related security risks that can inform Council decision-making, facilitate climate-related security-risk assessments and enable appropriate responses. A first step toward this goal could be a Council resolution on climate and security that establishes a reporting mechanism, making use of the considerable expertise that has already been developed within the United Nations system, including its specialized agencies. The Council could also consider whether a task force made up of relevant United Nations agencies could strengthen the Council’s engagement on the climate and security nexus through regular briefings and by otherwise supplying relevant expertise and information. In the interim, more systematic references to the impact of global warming on Council situations, particularly those outside of the African continent, are necessary and long overdue.

Luxembourg fully subscribes to the statement by the Head of Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations (see annex 18). We would like to thank and commend the German presidency and the other co-sponsoring members of the Security Council for organizing today’s very important open debate on climate and security. Across the globe, climate change is leading to more severe and increasingly unpredictable weather events, more frequent and heavy floods, unusually long droughts, sea-level rise and natural disasters, causing water and food shortages and, in some cases, contributing to the spread of pandemic diseases. These effects of climate change may also increase the risk of conflicts, in particular over the access to natural resources, such as land and water, exacerbate existing conflicts and pose new challenges for global security. It is clear, as the concept note for today’s debate states (see S/2020/725, enclosure), that the effects of climate change are threat multipliers and constitute major risk factors for international peace and security. Many ongoing conflicts, particularly in the Sahel region, are rooted in disputes over the access to natural resources, in particular agricultural land and pastureland, the productivity of which is falling due to overuse and the effects of climate change. The impact of prolonged droughts and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns in mostly rain-fed production systems is severe. Governance systems of rural-land tenure no longer seem to work in many places, where population densities have increased sharply and where local communities have started to arm themselves in order to defend what they consider their land against occupation or use by other communities. If these threat multipliers are not addressed, it is hard to see how a region like the Sahel can experience peaceful and sustainable development. Through its engagement on the issue since 2007 and more particularly since July 2011, the Security Council has been instrumental in highlighting the interlinkages between climate change and security and has enabled the United Nations to deal with those interlinkages in a more systematic and effective way. The establishment of the United Nations Climate Security Mechanism — a joint effort among the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme — has been an important milestone. Jointly with partners, the United Nations Climate Security Mechanism has developed a toolbox to advance a common approach to the analysis of climate-related security risks and to shape integrated and timely responses. It is crucial in our view to mainstream this toolbox, including, in particular, early-warning indicators, into the United Nations country teams’ political, social and economic assessment framework. This will allow the United Nations to detect and assess security risks related to climate-change exposure and vulnerabilities as early as possible, as well as those related to the state of natural resources and their governance. In this endeavour, the United Nations would benefit from working with the European Union, regional and subregional organizations such as the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, international financial institutions and other development partners, including civil society. The resulting information should feed into regular briefings to the Security Council. It should also provide the analytical basis for common responses at all levels, including for strengthening the ability of United Nations country teams and missions on the ground to integrate climate-related security risks into their preventive and reactive actions. Luxembourg supports enhancing the role and means of the United Nations Climate Security Mechanism in order to allow it to provide strategic advice to the Security Council, the Secretariat and other United Nations bodies. This could help strengthen conflict prevention and resolution through mediation and environmental peacebuilding, improved governance and sustainable management of natural resources, better adaptation to climate change and increased resilience building. Coordination is key, and United Nations agencies at the country level should be encouraged to address these challenges in a more coherent and effective manner within the respective United Nations sustainable development cooperation frameworks. At the same time, it is paramount that United Nations peace and security actors work more closely with those addressing humanitarian and development needs, climate-change adaptation and mitigation, and human rights and the rule of law. United Nations peace operations need to become more efficient in terms of resource use and should be enabled to also address conflicts over land and other natural resources, while humanitarian and development assistance as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts need to become more conflict-sensitive, thereby taking into account the security and long-term development needs of all stakeholders and communities. As the world’s top donor of official development assistance in proportion to gross national income, and as a reliable partner in international development and in security and defence, Luxembourg implements a “3D” foreign policy, combining the tools of diplomacy, sustainable development and defence. Consequently, Luxembourg supports the efforts of the Security Council and the international community as a whole that lead to improved governance of natural resources and increased resilience to climate change, with peace and security as the resulting dividends.

Mexico thanks Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, the Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam for calling for today’s debate on climate change and security. The issue is of the utmost relevance, since the negative effects of the phenomenon — catastrophic many times over — threaten the very survival of the human species. We are certain that this meeting will make it possible to move forward in the discussions on the effects that climate change may have in some cases in countries in conflict and post-conflict situations. Although the Security Council is not the body responsible for responding to the global threat of the phenomenon, the effects of climate change can accentuate the risk of instability. We are talking not just about extreme events, such as droughts or floods, which may be aggravated by the impacts of climate change, but also about long-term forms of environmental degradation, such as sea-level rise or loss of agricultural productivity. All of these have had devastating impacts on people in some regions. We support the Secretary-General’s various approaches to signalling the importance of investing in prevention in its various facets, which will be less costly for the international community than responding to conflicts themselves. In that regard, the United Nations system’s analytical capacities must be strengthened in order to better understand how climate change can increase risks that potentially have a negative impact on security in specific situations. The institutional architecture is moving in the right direction with the establishment of the partnership mechanism in the Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding. Its work in tandem with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme will help us to refine the kind of comprehensive analysis that the Security Council requires. Climate change is a phenomenon with multidimensional consequences. Therefore, the response to it must also be multidimensional. The reality on the ground calls for coherent, coordinated and integrated action. In cases where the Council has suggested a link between climate change and security, not only are peacekeeping operations and special political missions present but so is the development system. In this context, we must work together so that risk analysis includes the trends that the development system observes on the ground, and vice versa, so that identified development challenges are addressed in a preventive manner and do not become security problems. Ultimately, structural causes of conflict must be addressed. Just as the response to climate change must be guided by the best available scientific knowledge, as stated in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Security Council must have the best analyses, on a case-by-case basis, and in specific situations that fall within its competence. That is how the Council’s decision-making can be efficient and effective, taking into account the reality on the ground. We believe that this phenomenon represents a major challenge to development that needs to be addressed in a comprehensive manner and in accordance with international commitments in this area, in particular the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. The attention that the Security Council can give to the issue in specific contexts must complement the work being done in the multilateral climate change system, which aims to be more ambitious with regard to mitigation, adaptation, financing, technology and capacity-building. Mexico is an active player in those areas and is committed to meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Finally, Mexico considers it essential that the Security Council raise awareness of the effects of climate change on certain conflicts and that it empower the parts of the United Nations system with the best capacities and tools to address the risk factors and implement the necessary responses. Working together in a truly comprehensive and coordinated manner is the best way for us to address the challenges that some of the effects of climate change present, in certain specific cases, to international peace and security.

I begin by thanking the German presidency and other co-sponsors — Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, the Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam — for organizing this ministerial open debate on the theme of climate and Security. I also wish to thank the briefers for their insightful briefings. The threats to international peace and security can emanate from anywhere, and they can transcend national boundaries. Moreover, non-traditional and emerging threats pose serious challenges to international security and stability. The current coronavirus disease pandemic is a stark reminder that many security threats flow from rather invisible enemies. It has also taken the lid off the complacency in global cooperation and exposed our sheer lack of preparedness. The hazardous and existential threats of climate change, particularly to small island developing countries and other vulnerable countries, are long established. Climate-induced disasters, such as sea-level rise, hurricanes, landslides, torrential rains and extreme weather conditions, among others, have impacted food security and biodiversity, increased environmental migration and destabilized the economic orders of such countries. Such a scenario and escalation of hardship is a recipe for conflicts. The countries in special situations, such as least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS), bear the brunt of the climate catastrophe. No country alone — no matter how powerful it is — can address this issue. This warrants concerted and comprehensive efforts at the regional and global levels. The countries in special situations — LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS — must be supported through easier, transparent and direct access to climate finance and technology to fight the climate crisis. The Security Council can play an important role in addressing the threat of climate change simply by sending a message of its collective commitment. Council members must lead by example. Equally important is the expressed political support of the five permanent members of the Council to the prevalent climate-change frameworks. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change speaks of the collective commitment to a safe shared destiny on the planet. However, the challenge of implementation looms large. Our inability to upscale climate action will not only jeopardize the health of the planet but also the safety and security of the people. Climate action should therefore be treated not just as an afterthought or an add-on to our policies. It must be part of the core, if we are to ensure a secure world and the safety of humankind. As a mountainous country, Nepal remains vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. We are burdened disproportionately, despite our negligible emissions. A report on the Hindu Kush Himalaya region published last year by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development cautioned that up to two thirds of the glaciers in the region will melt away by 2100 if the business-as- usual approach continues. This can have repercussions in the availability of water and other resources, including food outside the mountain areas, such as in the river basins, which sustain more than 1 billion people. Adverse effects like the receding snowcap of the Himalayas, glacial-lake outburst floods and the extinction of some rare flora and fauna are already being experienced. In conclusion, Nepal would like to urge all countries to pay heed to the silent call of the disastrous effects of climate change on peoples and the planet, and to genuinely respond to the crisis for the sake of humankind.

Let me, at the outset, thank all the delegations that organized and co-sponsored today’s open debate. Our special appreciation goes to His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his remarks and far-reaching recommendations. We also thank other briefers for sharing their perspectives on this important subject. My delegation would like to make the following additional remarks in its national capacity. Climate change is a global challenge that burdens all of humankind at various levels. The distinct impact of climate change on both men and women can be seen in the areas of violent conflict, political instability and economic strife, leading to food insecurity and loss of livelihood, which threaten to reverse hard-won development gains. The cumulative effects of climate change have resulted in a rise in temperatures, variable rainfall, a rise in sea levels and flooding, drought, desertification, land degradation, extreme weather conditions, diminishing freshwater resources and a loss of biodiversity, thereby depriving entire populations of their livelihoods. Women, who constitute the majority of the agricultural workforce in Africa and elsewhere, are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change, deepening gender inequality, affecting maternal health and women’s economic productivity and increasing the risk of gender-based violence. In conflict-afflicted countries, where populations already suffer from multiple risks posed by climate change, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has further aggravated such situations by preventing access to markets, disrupting supply chains and restraining mobility, leading to the closure of markets. The lack of capacity to practice social distancing among populations displaced as a result of climate-related developments in camps where health and sanitary facilities are inadequate presents another challenging security risk scenario with the potential to lead to a high number of infections, which could spread to nearby communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has therefore unmasked the shades of inequality, as well as prospects for resilience and recovery. The contests over vital natural resources, particularly water and grazing fields, have become dire as the impact of climate change takes hold. Such contests have had significant security implications for Nigeria and other African countries. The incessant herder-farmer crises in Nigeria demonstrate the reality of climate change and the resource-control interface, and the attendant deep-rooted security challenges. Climate change is also associated with the problems of migration, terrorism and farmer-herder clashes in the Sahel, which have resulted in maiming, killings, rape and other forms of banditry associated with highly armed nomadic herders. The increasing loss of ecosystems, which traditionally provide means of livelihood for communities in the area, has continued to lead to forced displacement and migration concerns. The Lake Chad basin, which used to be a beehive of productivity, food security and wealth for citizens of eight African countries living around the basin, has shrunk significantly from its original size owing to climate change. This has led to a severe humanitarian crisis, as the region suffers from violence linked to armed groups, such as the Boko Haram terrorist group. The restrictions on the movement of farmers and pastoralists seeking alternative livelihoods during droughts limit their opportunities for income diversification, thereby exposing them to more vulnerabilities, such as youth recruitment, as well as the kidnapping and enslavement of women, by armed groups. We wish to recall that the Secretary-General convened a Climate Action Summit on 23 September 2019 to focus global attention in the face of the worsening climate crisis and to forge new pathways ahead to support the achievement of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Leaders at all levels were requested to step up to the challenge and demonstrate that business as usual was no longer acceptable. The Climate Action Summit set a clear direction of travel for climate action, but it also highlighted where much more action was needed to secure our footing on a path towards 1.5°C by the end of the century. In other words, the Climate Action Summit reinforced 1.5°C as the socially, economically, politically and scientifically safe limit to global warming by the end of this century, and net zero emissions by 2050 as the global long-term climate objective for all. It called on all countries to urgently accelerate work to define what this entails for the short-term 2020 and the mid-term (2030) commitments, which will be captured in their nationally determined contributions, and ensure the alignment of strategies to meet those commitments. There is no gainsaying the fact that the world needs to take more concrete steps to mitigate the fast-declining health of our planet. There is a need for all leaders to step up their climate actions in line with the request of the Secretary-General. Nigeria’s commitment to its obligation under the Paris Agreement, particularly the aspirations enshrined in our nationally determined contribution, including the commitment to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent unconditionally and 45 per cent conditionally by 2030, is unwavering. Nigeria is leading in the efforts to create solid partnerships for the recharge of Lake Chad, in the belief that it would help improve the living conditions of populations settled in the area, promote sustainable productive activities, improve inter-State cooperation and transboundary circulation, strengthen adaptation and community resilience, as well as assist in addressing the environmental and security risks that threaten the region, its resources and inhabitants. To that effect, the Nigerian Government is developing a rehabilitation programme and finalizing the development of the Lake Chad Basin Climate Change Resilience Action Plan, which includes an inter-basin water transfer project estimated to cost $55 billion. Nigeria has also embraced the issuances of green bonds as an innovative and alternative source of funding projects that would reduce emissions and provide the robust climate infrastructure needed in Nigeria, such as renewable energy, low- carbon transport, water infrastructure and sustainable agriculture. The sovereign bonds issued were used to provide off-grid renewable energy in seven federal universities in different geopolitical zones of the country, as well as to generate and distribute off-grid renewable energy resources in some unserved and underserved areas, especially rural communities in the country, with an emission reduction of up to 41,888,04 metric tons in the past two years, creating green jobs and planting trees in over 2,000 hectares of land across Nigeria. As a show of commitment, the next issuance in the series is under way, which we intend to use to triple Nigeria’s greenhouse-gas emission reductions, stimulate economic growth and catalyse investment in social programmes, such as education and health. We will continue to forge a mutually beneficial coalition of global partnership, including the private sector and regional Governments, towards addressing the socioeconomic and security challenges that face the Lake Chad region. Nigeria also intends to carry out an upward review of its nationally determined contribution towards the inclusion of additional sectors by 2020. In the water sector, Nigeria is underwriting a green bond for irrigation and constructing multipurpose dams for power, irrigation and water supply, in line with integrated water-resource management principles. In the waste management sector, Nigeria has set up plans to develop a national solid and liquid waste policy and commission a feasibility study of waste-to-energy projects at the national and states levels to attract private sector investors. Nigeria will continue to take steps to establish six geopolitical zonal hubs for harnessing innovative climate ideas from young Nigerians, as well as include our youth in decision-making processes as part of our overall climate change governance architecture. We will also continue to create youth entrepreneurship/green jobs from renewable energy, including solar, and establish a youth innovation fund within the currently existing Bank of Agriculture, the Bank of Industry and the Development Bank of Nigeria. We will also mobilize Nigerian youth towards planting 25 million trees to enhance Nigeria’s carbon sink. In conclusion, there is no gainsaying the fact that the challenges of climate change are enormous. And, since no individual country can confront the phenomenon alone, we call for joint and collaborative efforts to tackle the problem.

Let me sincerely thank Germany for taking the lead in bringing important climate change-related security issues onto the Security Council’s agenda. We express our gratitude to the briefers for presenting their interesting perspectives. We strongly believe that addressing the implications of climate change is not only the responsibility of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council but also of the Security Council, as climate change poses risks to peace and security. Our responses should be comprehensive and more integrated. We must make every effort to achieve tangible progress on this issue. It is now our time to act to protect our planet and implement ambitious environmental policies to help us halt global warming and its consequences. We see around the world that degradation of the environment and climate change are negatively impacting people’s lives. Cutting emissions in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Katowice Rulebook is essential. We must also address the global challenges resulting from climate change, such as food and water scarcity, droughts, displacements, floods and competition over natural resources. We know that the consequences of climate change will be felt mostly in those countries and regions that struggle with poor governance and socioeconomic challenges. They will especially affect vulnerable populations in the Sahel, Africa, island States and Asia. That is why stabilization efforts and peacebuilding must be climate-sensitive. More emphasis must be put on a prevention agenda. In that context, let me underline the importance of anticipating risks by using new technologies and data. We commend the work of the United Nations Climate Security Mechanism. Risk assessment and management strategies, as well as sharing knowledge and experience and capacity-building in developing countries, will be crucial to building resilience. We believe that, with effective early-warning systems based on reliable data on climate security risks, we could improve forecasting in order to better prevent outbreaks. As Poland underlined on various occasions at Council meetings during our membership in 2018 and 2019, we find it important to give more prominence to climate security risks in the form of regular discussions of the Council and in resolutions in the context of country- and region-specific situations. Poland would be supportive of regular reporting by the Secretary-General on the links between climate change and armed conflict. Moreover, in order to ensure more effective conflict prevention, the Security Council should have a comprehensive approach to emerging challenges. It would therefore also be essential to include climate security risks in peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts and, where relevant, to consider them in the mandates of peace operations. In conclusion, addressing climate change security risks requires a multilateral response and regional cooperation, as no country is able to face these challenges alone. We hope that today’s discussion will help us build shared understanding on the urgency of the issue and move this agenda forward. We should not lose momentum. As we struggle with the impact of the coronavirus disease, it is now more important than ever to build back better and greener and to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Portugal aligns itself with the statement submitted by the European Union (see annex 18). As a member of the Group of Friends on Climate and Security, Portugal also wishes to align itself with the joint statement submitted by the Group (see annex 21). In the midst of a global health crisis, which is rapidly unfolding to become a major humanitarian, economic and social crisis, the time when we recognized that climate change was the defining challenge of our time may seem distant. However, the climate crisis is still here. It will still be here when we defeat this pandemic, and it will continue to have an impact on international peace and security. This global pandemic should in fact remind us that we have to continue to look beyond the factors that we traditionally associated with peace and security. We need to understand peace and security in a holistic manner, taking into due account cross-cutting and multidimensional themes such as migration, women and youth, health and climate. Climate change is a major threat multiplier, particularly in already fragile regions. Competition over diminishing natural resources adds fuel to existing conflicts. Existing vulnerabilities are amplified by sea-level rise, excessive rainfall and prolonged drought, thereby increasing social and economic instability, which often leads people to move in search of better living conditions. Over recent years, the United Nations system has made progress in incorporating climate-related security risks into its analysis and actions. The Climate Security Mechanism is a good example of the progress achieved and the holistic approach that is needed. The Security Council itself has integrated the implications of the effects of climate change on peace and stability into a number of resolutions, and it has discussed this threat multiplier at a number of thematic debates and informal meetings. We believe that the time is ripe for the Security Council to deal with the climate and security nexus in a more systematic way. We encourage the Council to continue to mandate peacekeeping operations to consider climate-related risks in their activities. The United Nations and Member States should also strengthen capacity-building of the United Nations staff involved in those operations, thereby enabling them to better identify and deal with climate-related security risks. In parallel, the Climate Security Mechanism should be further strengthened in order to scale up its role in mobilizing knowledge and contributing to mainstreaming it across the United Nations system. Data gathering and analysis are key to ensuring that the Security Council has authoritative information on the impact of climate- related security risks in conflict settings and can develop tools, partnerships and early-warning capabilities that would support the timely assessment of, and response to, climate-related security risks in order to prevent the escalation of conflict. Closer involvement by United Nations agencies, funds and programmes would be added value. Additionally, analysis and awareness of climate-related security risks should be better integrated into the efforts of the United Nations and Member States towards preventive diplomacy and peacebuilding, understanding the interlinkages between climate change, conflict prevention and sustaining peace, and establishing adequate early-warning, risk prevention and management strategies. For a more coherent approach, whereby the peace and security and development pillars of the United Nations work closer together, we must factor in the role of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). Taking advantage of the PBC’s advisory role to the Security Council, and of the welcome commitment of country- specific configurations to providing written advice in advance of Security Council discussions, could also be a way to feed the climate and security nexus into the concrete discussions on peace and security. Lastly, we should reach beyond the United Nations system towards civil society and academic organizations that have been gathering data and developing a thorough analysis of this nexus, as well as towards the field, in particular countries that are on the front lines of climate-related security risks and have access to invaluable empirical evidence.

At the outset, we would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this crucial debate on the multidimensional global challenge that is climate change and on its impact on international peace and security. We also thank the briefers for their valuable and comprehensive presentations. Today’s meeting is taking place in unprecedented circumstances, namely, the extraordinary challenges posed by the coronavirus disease pandemic, which has significant implications for livelihoods, and the increased risks associated with climate change, with the attendant effects on food security, large-scale human displacement as a result of drought, frequent natural disasters and a scarcity of resources, all of which help to spark or prolong conflicts. While no country has been spared the adverse effects of climate change, which is by now a concern shared by the entire international community, those effects are felt most acutely by people living in fragile situations, whether because of geographic circumstances, poverty or some other factor, as in the case of small island developing States and least developed countries. In addition to having a significant impact on the capacity to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and uphold human rights, climate change is increasingly linked to international peace and security. The Security Council now addresses that link in its work; several resolutions take note of the impact of climate change on peace and stability. However, an integrated approach is still needed to better understand and assess climate-related security risks, their effect on conflicts and the need for early warning that would enable the Council to respond effectively and appropriately to these risks, prevent conflicts and maintain peace. Efforts by Qatar to combat climate change have not been limited to the national level; the State of Qatar has had a direct, leading role at the international level. Given the urgent need to address the negative consequences of climate change, an effort that will require effective international cooperation and response, Qatar has continued to be an active partner in the international community. Qatar played a trailblazing role in organizing the Climate Action Summit, which was held in September 2019 and led by His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, together with France and Jamaica. Those three countries form the Coalition on Climate Finance and Carbon Pricing. The Emir of Qatar contributed $100 million to support efforts by small island developing States and least developed countries to address climate change. In doing so, he showed just how seriously Qatar takes its own role and that of the international community in tackling the issue, and underscored the importance of intensifying and accelerating collective action within the United Nations international framework in order to address it in a systematic manner. The Qatar Fund for Development is working to finalize the disbursement mechanism in order to fulfil that pledge. Three levels of work have been identified to establish a basis for the mechanism, namely, funding, policy support and capacity building and international advocacy. A multisectoral approach to development cooperation will be adopted, taking into account three priority sectors: education as a key pillar of the global response to climate change, economic development and health, given the impact of climate change on health-care programmes and systems. In view of the need for integrated cooperation and action, the strategy is aimed at sup-porting small island developing States and least developed countries in their effort to achieve the ambitious goals set forth in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and make long-term gains through broad-based, sustainable and effective development efforts conducive to peace and security. Qatar is well-known for its commitment to international cooperation in tackling common challenges. Desertification in particular has a catastrophic impact on affected States. Accordingly, the Emir of Qatar has launched an initiative to establish the Global Drylands Alliance, a mechanism to achieve food security in drought-stricken countries and thereby help strengthen international peace and security. The agreement establishing the Alliance was concluded in Doha in 2017 and entered into force after being ratified by States parties, in accordance with its provisions. Environmental development is one of the cornerstones of the Qatar National Vision 2030. Qatar has adopted several plans and programmes aimed at addressing climate change and achieving environmental sustainability, notably, by promoting clean energy and energy efficiency. One such project entails a shift to 20 per cent reliance on solar energy by 2030. The Qatar Investment Authority is investing in climate financing projects and is a founding member of the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund, established at the One Planet Summit held in Paris in 2017, with a view to increasing efficiency in the allocation of global capital and facilitating a smooth transition to a more sustainable, low-carbon economy. My country’s commitment to global efforts to combat climate change is nothing new: in 2012 Qatar hosted the eighteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We will spare no effort in working to fulfil our commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In conclusion, in the context of multilateral action, Qatar will continue to partner with the international community to tackle climate change, one of the most significant challenges facing humankind.

The Republic of Korea welcomes this open debate on climate and security, as it provides another opportunity to discuss climate risks to international peace and security. We would like to highlight the following three points for further discussion on this important topic at the Security Council. First, the Republic of Korea believes that climate change is not only a threat multiplier, but also an existential threat to international peace and security. Its security risks are increasing each and every year, and, as such, we need to be better prepared for the cascading effects of climate change to achieve global peace. We are witnessing extreme weather events all around the world, many on an unprecedented scale. This includes extreme droughts and floods, scorching heatwaves, out-of-control wildfires and dangerous superstorms and hurricanes — in many cases, depriving people of their livelihoods and, in an increasing number of cases, becoming one of the main drivers of regional instability. We therefore believe that we cannot secure international peace and security without addressing the effects of climate change alongside other interlinked security risks, and we need more concrete actions to that end. For instance, Korea is committed to the Peace Forest Initiative, launched in 2019 at the fourteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which promotes peace and trust through collaboration on rehabilitation and restoration of degraded land and forests in fragile and conflict-affected regions. Such efforts can facilitate exchanges and trigger economic collaboration, ultimately contributing to the alleviation of political tension. Secondly, the Republic of Korea commends the leadership shown by the Security Council, as the main organ of the United Nations responsible for international peace and security, thus far on the issue of climate and security. We believe that the role of the Security Council in this regard should be strengthened. The Council needs to enhance its readiness to assess and respond to climate-related security risks, turning discussions into more tangible results. In this respect, the Republic of Korea welcomes the establishment of the Climate Security Mechanism and its initiatives, including the publication of a toolbox. The toolbox, which is an up-to-date compilation of expertise and case studies, will provide good guidance not only to United Nations staff but to all Member States in planning how to tackle this complex issue. We believe that this toolbox should be continuously updated with input from Member States so as to sustainably serve as a useful policy guideline moving forward. We also support the submission by the Secretary-General of a comprehensive report to the Security Council regarding climate-related security risks, and the holding by the Security Council of meetings on this issue on a regular basis. We think that this will help boost awareness and actions among the Member States. As tangible results, we welcome Security Council’s resolutions and presidential statements on Lake Chad (resolution 2349 (2017)), West Africa and the Sahel (S/PRST/2018/3 and S/PRST/2019/7), Somalia (resolution 2408 (2018)), Mali (resolution 2423 (2018)), Darfur (resolution 2429 (2018)) and Africa (resolution 2457 (2019)), all of which include elements of climate-related security risks. In addition, we need a United Nations system-wide approach to climate-related security risks and, as such, better coordination among United Nations bodies. We believe that the recently adopted Economic and Social Council resolution 2020/2, on international support to the Sahel region, is a good example, which can provide inspiration in this regard. It sets out closer cooperation between relevant United Nations bodies and Member States leading to more concrete actions. The Republic of Korea actively engaged in hammering out that resolution, and we will continue to play a constructive role for follow-up to and implementation of that resolution. Thirdly, we need an appropriate strategy to cope with the devastating effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on climate-related security risks. The pandemic is causing damage to our societies and economies at an unprecedented scale and threatens to thwart our efforts to address climate change. In order to build back better from COVID-19, our recovery plan needs to place at its core the consideration for climate change and a long-term low-carbon development strategy. As an ambitious and concrete plan to ensure a greener recovery, the Korean Government has announced a recovery package called the Korean New Deal, which consists of three pillars — a Digital New Deal and a Green New Deal, along with reinforcing social-safety nets. The Korean Green New Deal in particular pursues the goal of a low-carbon and sustainable economy by investing in green sectors and creating green new jobs. That will ultimately put the Korean economy in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as we work towards the net-zero carbon emissions target, which we believe is essential in reducing climate-related security risks worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fact that coordinated actions by the entire international community are necessary to ensure international security and prosperity. To prevent climate crises from further spiralling into threats to peace and security, international cooperation and support for United Nations system-wide action is crucial. The Republic of Korea will continue to actively participate in international cooperation and support efforts to that end.

I should like at the outset to welcome the holding of this open debate under the chairmanship of Mr. Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, which once again reflects the particular interest that the Security Council accords to the issue of climate-related security risks. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General as well as our briefers for the day, Colonel Mahamadou Magagi, Director of the Centre National d’Études Stratégiques et de Sécurité of the Niger, and Ms. Coral Pasisi, Director of the Sustainable Pacific Consultancy; and youth representatives for their important communications. There is no need to reiterate here the dramatic impacts of climate change on our lives. In addition to the oscillation between two extremes, drought on the one hand and floods on the other, we are seeing the occurrence of sporadic, intermittent natural disasters of a very high intensity. Those phenomena exacerbate the major challenges of the twenty-first century: poverty, hunger, food insecurity, migration, internal displacement, economic collapse, intercommunity conflicts and violent extremism, among others. In that regard, the presence of eight of the 10 largest multilateral peace operations in countries of the Sahel and the Middle East, regions highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, is hardly surprising. It is also no coincidence that the majority of the 27 countries most at risk of a food crisis due to the coronavirus disease, according to a report dated 17 July 2020 issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme, are hotbeds of tension that were already grappling with extreme weather conditions. I can add to that list, without being alarmist, the swarms of desert locusts that have formed in Kenya and Ethiopia since last January and that could move towards West Africa in the coming weeks, thus threatening to reach a part of the Sahel that is already in turmoil owing to multiple crises. It goes without saying, therefore, that climate change has a corrosive effect on international peace and security, the preservation of which will now depend to a large extent not only on our collective actions in favour of the climate, but also on our efforts to avoid competition for access to natural resources, which have become scarce in several parts of the world. That competition is the trigger for and even the catalyst of conflicts in which the opposing parties often use as arguments the sell-off of their resources, their monopolization by a foreign power or, quite simply, their mismanagement and unequal distribution. However, above and beyond conflicts resulting from the competition for resources, we must recognize that the impacts of climate change directly threaten our very presence on this Earth: hence the notion of planetary security. Five questions were put to Member States to enable them to provide the Security Council with information on the implications of climate change for international peace and security and to offer their contributions and reflections on this subject. They were also invited to share their national experiences regarding the issue. I would like to regroup those questions into one larger question: what role should the United Nations play in hotbeds of tension that are directly or indirectly caused by the impacts of climate change? Or, more specifically, what form of conflict- related preventive diplomacy incorporating climate change should the United Nations system adopt? To answer that question, three basic ideas come to mind. First, it seems important to me to work towards a better harmonization of positions on high-stakes issues, including climate and security, within the Security Council and at the level of the United Nations system. Secondly, we must avoid at all costs the possibility of climate and security initiatives supplanting the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as that of all related conventions, which constitute the multilateral reference framework for the fight against climate change. Last but not least, climate financing must be fully operational, especially in terms of adaptation, because it is an effective way to support and maintain activities aimed at combating climate change and, by extension, preventing conflicts. I would also like to take this opportunity to recall that the mobilization of resources to replenish the Green Climate Fund after 2020 must be a priority in order to allow developing countries to adapt to climate change, with a view to promoting their resilience. To conclude, I would like to share with the Council some conclusions from the subregional meeting on multilateral cooperation to address climate-related security and development risks, in particular in the Sahel, which my country co-organized with Norway in Dakar on 3 and 4 March 2020, as part of the African and Nordic countries’ initiative to strengthen multilateral cooperation and a rules-based international order. On that occasion, the following factors, inter alia, were recognized. First, there is a need to integrate the climate dimension into the peace- security-development link, in particular in the context of efforts to promote peace and security in the Sahel, without overlooking the gender dimension. Women are not only the main victims of climate-related risks but also key players in sustainable development and vectors of peace. Secondly, cooperation must be strengthened between the United Nations, the African Union and the regional economic commissions on climate-related security risks. Thirdly, we must invest in resilient agricultural jobs to address conflict and climate change, with a special focus on young people. Fourthly, we must urgently adopt an inclusive strategy that duly considers the real concerns of the affected populations in order to work alongside them to bolster their resilience. I would be remiss if I did not mention one example of successful cooperation in the management of transboundary waters among four States: Mali, Mauritania, Guinea and my country, Senegal. Our countries make up the Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS), which assessed the risk of conflict that could arise from the demand for water resources whose availability is become increasingly threatened by climate change. We therefore issued the declaration of OMVS Heads of State on 11 March 2015, in Conakry, on climate change and the implementation of the specific provision to be applied in the framework of the second phase of the Senegal River Basin Integrated Water Resources Management Project and the Senegal River Basin Multi-purpose Water Resources Development Project for the period 2014-2021. Senegal has also taken transboundary biodiversity management initiatives, the most prominent of which are the Senegal Delta Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, which became a UNESCO-designated site in 2012 at the request of Senegal and Mauritania, and the Niokolo-Koba and Badiar National Parks between Senegal and Guinea.

Slovakia commends Germany for its initiative in organizing the open debate on climate and security to underscore the nexus between human security and environmental security. My delegation associates itself with the statement submitted by the European Union (see annex 18). We are living through an extraordinarily difficult period in global history. The coronavirus disease reminds us that life is precarious and interconnected. Our world was already fragile, but violent conflict, humanitarian need and displacement — influenced and intensified by climate change — have all increased over the past decade. The growing impact of climate change became visible with frequent droughts, floods, warmer temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather events. Climate disasters lead to humanitarian disasters, food shortages and economic, social and demographic shocks, and can exacerbate already overwhelming challenges, especially for underresourced, fragile State Governments. The 2019 Climate Action Summit was a crucial advocacy moment to shape the climate agenda. Slovakia is a strong proponent of climate action, peace, human rights and the rule of law. That commitment to values, peace and leaving no one behind was reaffirmed by our President, Ms. Zuzana Čaputová, at the Climate Action Summit. In her words, “if we succeed in uniting on our action for climate, we can generate a new sense of solidarity in other areas. This can become a basis to overcome divisions among nations, and bring new opportunities”. The interaction between climate change, the loss of biodiversity and international security must absolutely become a key item on the conflict-prevention agenda. It is the only way to anticipate tomorrow’s threats and help the most vulnerable countries. With climate already adversely affecting security, we need the United Nations and the Security Council to play their part. We thank Germany for their great leadership in the field of climate and security at the Security Council. The international community needs to act fast. We encourage the Security Council and the United Nations to create a comprehensive database on climate-related security risks. We should integrate short and long-term climate and environmental risk factors in the assessment and management of threats to peace and security at the country, regional and international levels. We encourage the international community to draw on the expertise of the whole United Nations system and to strengthen the Organization’s missions on the ground in order to find operational responses to those risks. Thanks to the work of the Climate Security Mechanism, under the leadership of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), we have managed to make some progress in that regard. We have to continue identifying ways of addressing the impact of climate change on conflict and to seek necessary global policy responses. Alongside Germany and several other partners, Slovakia would like the Secretary-General to present a report on this issue every two years before the General Assembly and the Security Council. The report would provide not only a clear assessment and analysis of specific risks, but also recommendations for action. The United Nations response should work hand in hand with the Security Council, and focus on preventive diplomacy, peacebuilding, peacekeeping and resilience. Institutional and sectoral divides must be overcome to work in a more integrated fashion to link humanitarian, development, climate mitigation, peace and security action. The final issue I would like to mention is the heightened vulnerability of women and girls to the impact of climate and security. The latest report, Gender, climate and security: Sustaining inclusive peace on the frontlines of climate change, issued by UNEP, UN-Women, UNDP and DPPA, reveals the close links between gender, climate and security. The report shows that women on the front lines of climate action are playing a vital role in conflict prevention and sustainable, inclusive peace. Supporting local ownership, improving leadership and broadening inclusion in conflict and fragile settings, with special attention to gender and youth, remain vital. To the best of its ability, the United Nations should lead in facilitating and coordinating global efforts on climate action, working with regional partners and other stakeholders, including non-State actors such as businesses and local authorities, which play an increasingly important role in this field. Multilateralism is a key tool that can and should deliver on global solutions, including climate change. Slovakia is fully committed to playing a part in that collective responsibility.

Spain aligns itself with the statement submitted by the European Union (see annex 18) and the statement submitted by Nauru on behalf of the Group of Friends of Climate and Security (see annex 21). I would like to thank Germany for its efforts to convene this debate on climate and security, as well as the briefers for their very informative contributions. I would like to centre my remarks on three issues. First, the coronavirus disease crisis has shown how climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss are at the root of increased social and economic fragility. The greater the fragility, the more vulnerable societies are to security risks. There can be no doubt — climate change should be considered a cross-cutting issue when designing the world’s recovery from this pandemic and when defining security policies, from the strategic to the tactical level. Nevertheless, that should not take away from a country-specific analysis. My second point is on the links between climate and security. Spain continues to support regular comprehensive Secretary-General reports on climate-related security risks in order to better understand the challenges and opportunities we face. Such reports must be gender-sensitive and include concrete recommendations for action by United Nations organs, as well as access to risk-assessment and early- warning mechanisms that integrate the impact of climate change. Those factors all need to be taken into account in strategic planning for conflict prevention and disaster responses, as well as in the scope of ground operations related to conflicts and natural disasters. The United Nations system, both as a whole and at the regional level, must be strengthened to tackle climate-related security risks. The Climate Security Mechanism is a useful tool that should be reinforced. We also support the establishment of new mechanisms, such as a special envoy on climate and security, ad hoc expert groups on the ground and a Secretary-General advisory unit. As a general principle, we strongly emphasize the close links between climate and security. Spain has promoted that approach in several forums, including during our co-leadership of the Social and Political Drivers of Climate Action Coalition in the Climate Action Summit. Finally, let me make a third point. National measures should also be encouraged. Spain has incorporated an analysis of the impact of climate change in its national security strategy. We monitor trends and consequences. Today, we would like to suggest the establishment of a coordination mechanism to allow countries to voluntarily share national data and experiences in their implementation of national strategies. We are facing the worst crisis the world has known since the foundation of the United Nations. Let us address the climate and security nexus within our response for a better and safer recovery.

Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to both national and international peace and security, with its effects being felt globally. As such, Sri Lanka welcomes today’s high-level open debate on climate and security. As the world grapples with a sudden and raging health pandemic, it has become abundantly clear that non-traditional security threats, such as climate change, are becoming some of the greatest challenges facing humankind. In fact, we are in this predicament today because we have taken our environment for granted and have exploited it, without any thought of the consequences. Unlike our visible enemies, climate change has crept up on us, almost unseen, almost unheard, as a faceless enemy. But its impact has been devastating, shattering lives, destroying property, weakening economies and threatening the very existence of States. The socioeconomic effects of climate change include a decline in agricultural productivity, drinking and irrigation water shortages, with the related risk of thirst and famine, increased rates and geographic scope of diseases, changes and large shifts in human migration patterns, and economic and human losses due to extreme weather events and shifts in economic output and trade patterns. In fragile and conflict situations, the impact of climate change can become a magnifier of existing tensions and make conflicts more likely, intense and longer-lasting. Its effects can create fertile ground for the activities of extremist groups. Natural disasters due to climate change are also major security threats, as people affected by them are susceptible to becoming refugees or internally displaced persons, who are vulnerable not only to the physical and socioeconomic effects of disease, but also to malnutrition and loss of income, which could spur them to crime and violence. In fact, climate change gives rise to climate refugees, which can change the demographics of countries and regions. That, in turn, can create a multitude of security issues that could threaten peaceful societies, ranging from petty crimes to conflict between countries, and can bring pressure to bear on humanitarian assistance. Women, children and other vulnerable groups are the most affected, and their livelihoods and security is at heightened risk. Sri Lanka is deeply concerned about the negative impact climate change has on the security, economy and social progress of countries, as well as the devastating consequences it has on the environment, particularly on island countries. Climate change continues to hamper national and global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and threatens to reverse the progress achieved thus far. As such, building the resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems to withstand the effects of climate change, in line with our commitments under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is a priority for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka believes that a fair and ambitious agreement is needed for countries to reach the long-term temperature targets and Sustainable Development Goals, and is pleased to be associated with efforts to tackle current and projected climate change challenges through its nationally determined contribution. While it is clear how climate change interacts with the drivers of conflict, we must better understand climate-related security risks and develop improved tools and reporting on the issue. To that end, we need a holistic approach that includes political, humanitarian and security responses, coupled with longer-term economic development and governance solutions. We must urgently acknowledge that addressing climate change is important to sustaining peace. We cannot afford to be complacent. Appropriate measures need to be taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change and build resilience. Otherwise, destabilization and the possibility of increased conflict in many parts of the world is extremely real. Sri Lanka has a long history and heritage of conserving the environment and utilizing precious natural resources in a sustainable manner. It has also supported and committed to global efforts to address issues related to climate change. As a country that is no stranger to the adverse impact of climate change, Sri Lanka continues to advocate for the provision of assistance to developing countries to combat these challenges, including with regard to finance, technology-transfer and capacity- building. Climate-related agreements need to be respected and upheld. That includes the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and adherence to the principles of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities. That must be pursued if the world is to move forward on ensuring comprehensive security and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Sri Lanka firmly believes that the fight against climate change and consolidating security cannot be won by Governments alone. Partnerships are vital in our efforts to mitigate and adapt to that threat. The private sector, civil society, academia and key stakeholders, such as youth, women and indigenous communities, remain critical to our efforts to combat this concealed foe and overcome the threat that it poses to national and international security. We must all come together in a timely fashion to jointly address this issue.

Switzerland wishes to thank Germany for organizing this debate and its participants for their contributions. The impact of climate change on the global environment, economy and society is profound and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities and inequalities. When combined with existing conflict drivers such as political and economic instability, climate change is a risk multiplier, making conflicts more likely, more intense and longer-lasting. Switzerland is taking action to limit the security implications of climate change, for instance, through our Blue Peace initiative, launched in 2010, which supports cross-border cooperation to promote dialogue on water access. We are co-Chairs of the Nansen Initiative and support the Platform on Disaster Displacement. When disasters or climate-change effects lead to forced displacement, they can act as a driver of social tensions and conflict. We recognize the urgency that proactive steps be taken to limit the impacts of climate change on human security. The Council has recognized adverse effects of climate change on international peace and security, starting with resolution 2349 (2017). We welcome the fact that the Council has made progress in recent years in integrating language on climate-related security risks into its outcomes and that the need for improved assessment of climate-related security risks has been noted in such contexts as Somalia, Mali, West Africa, the Sahel and Darfur. Switzerland wishes to underline three areas of action in which the Security Council can contribute to mitigating climate and security risks. First, as the interdependent nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development shows, climate action cuts across multiple agendas and United Nations bodies in the three pillars of the Organization. The Security Council has recognized the link between peace and security and sustainable development and must now also fully address the peace and security implications of climate change. The Council should include a gender-responsive approach and acknowledge the innovative role that youth has to play. Switzerland appreciates the continued engagement of a majority of Security Council members, as well as of the Group of Friends of Climate and Security. We support the Group’s joint position and the call for a region-specific and forward-looking report of the Secretary-General on climate-related security risks. Regular reporting, using existing structures within the United Nations, is crucial to addressing such risks efficiently. Secondly, the Security Council should systematically integrate climate-related security risks in addressing regional or country situations on its agenda. It should take full advantage of the information and resources available within the United Nations system. This requires early-warning systems to systematically identify situations where climate change acts as a risk multiplier in order to develop adequate responses. Climate-data collection, climate scenarios and early-warning systems have already been applied with success. It is vital to exchange this knowledge and use synergies within the United Nations, including the Security Council. Improved coordination across the entire United Nations system should enable an appropriate response to these challenges. Thirdly, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has intensified the climate crisis, deepened social inequalities and posed a risk to peace and security. It has increased vulnerability for populations living in regions affected by conflict, fragility and climate change. The combined impact of climate change, COVID-19 and conflict has resulted in millions of people in need of humanitarian assistance. Women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and displaced populations are particularly at risk. COVID-19 must not be used to allow setbacks in climate protection, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change must remain a priority. Against this backdrop, Switzerland supports an enhanced engagement by the Security Council with respect to all the implications that climate change has for international peace and security. There is an increasing need to address climate- change, fragility and conflict risks together. Climate change needs to be taken into account systematically and in an integrated manner to prevent conflicts and strengthen resilience and adaptation measures. Climate and development policies have to become more conflict-sensitive, and security policy has to become more climate-sensitive.

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the 14 States member of the Pacific Islands Forum with a presence at the United Nations, namely, Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu and my own country, Tuvalu. On behalf of our group, we would like to express our gratitude to the co-sponsors for convening this important debate on climate and security. We would also like to take this opportunity to convey our condolences to and solidarity with those countries that have lost lives to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. With regard to climate and security, climate change is the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. As the Pacific Islands Forum, we are collectively addressing the Security Council today because the links between climate and security for our region are indivisible and demonstrable. When the effects of climate change intersect with a complex array of environmental, economic and social issues, it becomes a threat multiplier and can be a significant contributor to social and political instability, in addition to both low- level and more violent conflict. The Pacific region faces negative climate impacts stemming from rising temperatures, sea-level rise, ocean warming, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as storm surges and tropical cyclones, more variable rainfall patterns and prolonged droughts. Pacific island countries are particularly vulnerable to these effects, with their extensive rural populations, high reliance on natural resources and ecosystem services, and great exposure to weather-related hazards and ocean changes. Combined and increasing, such threats can overwhelm response and recovery efforts, leading to a breakdown in governance and security and stimulating unrest with wide-ranging consequences for well-being and livelihoods in the region. As to the Pacific response, Pacific leaders have affirmed the security challenges resulting from climate change in the Boe Declaration on Regional Security and the Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Change Action Now. The security risks are stark, but the remedy remains clear. The best way to reduce climate-related conflicts is to take substantial action on climate mitigation. States must do more to lower emissions to reduce future climate-related impacts through implementing and not just communicating national determined contributions. It is crucial that we maintain the global momentum created by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to ensure it is anchored firmly in its objectives and principles and that it is effectively implemented. For the shared prosperity and security of our Pacific Islands Forum countries, urgent action by the international community to limit global warming to 1.5°C is critical. Anything less would signal to the world that we are not serious about climate change. While climate mitigation remains the most effective way to reduce climate impacts, more investment is also needed to ensure vulnerable States can effectively adapt to the impacts of climate change that are already occurring. Building resilience, disaster risk reduction and adaptive capacity allows countries to better cope with climate-related events before they become security challenges. With regard to the specific security implications of climate change, the United Nations response should be coordinated by a newly appointed special rapporteur on climate and security. With regard to COVID-19 and the Pacific, as we turn towards the recovery from the pandemic, we have a once-in-a-century opportunity and a responsibility to prioritize investments in the transition to a low-emissions, climate-resilient economy. Every State should reflect on the Secretary-General’s climate-related principles to shape the recovery when developing their response. The Security Council has a crucial role to play, both in highlighting the security dimensions of this multifaceted challenge and in encouraging efforts to address these risks before they lead to conflict. This, we believe, is in the spirit of the preventive-security element espoused by paragraph 1 of Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations. International and United Nations mechanisms, including the Council, must recognize climate change as a unique and consequential threat multiplier in all relevant work and activities. The Security Council can and should add its weight to calls to ensure that the global economic response is in line with these principles and the goals of the Paris Agreement. The members of the Pacific Islands Forum intimately understand the fundamental importance of climate to international peace and security. We encourage the Security Council and all States Members of the United Nations to take action to address this global challenge in an integrated and innovative manner. The litmus test for the humanitarian and development nexus is before us now. There can be no sustainable development without peace and human security and no peace without sustainable development. We remain committed to undertaking this urgent and crucial work alongside all members of the international community.

The United Arab Emirates would like to thank Germany for organizing today’s open debate and bolstering the Security Council’s work on climate change. We would also like to thank the briefers for their briefings. In the years since Germany and other States Members of the United Nations first addressed the topic of climate security in the Council, we have long moved past the point of recognizing that there is a link between climate change and security. There is ample evidence around the world, including in our region, of how droughts, extreme weather patterns, desertification and other climate impacts lead to societal unrest, unemployment, competition for resources and displacement. These factors all contribute significantly to conflict, violence and recruitment by terrorist groups, with disproportionately negative impacts on youth and children, women and persons with disabilities. We have also moved past confusing the securitization of climate with its militarization. We would therefore like to raise four points today on how to potentially operationalize the climate-security nexus in the context of the Security Council. First, we believe that the Council would benefit from enhanced and standardized analysis of the security implications of climate change in situations on the Council’s agenda, building on the work of the Climate Security Mechanism. At this stage, we would support targeted analytical training for mission staff in countries and situations where climate is most relevant, so they can integrate climate into their Council-facing products and their own programming, using comparable methodologies. We would also expect that existing in-country resources, such as the United Nations Development Programme, the humanitarian coordinator and other agencies, could provide some of this capacity. Secondly, we call for further development of the anticipatory-action capabilities of the United Nations. We commend the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Bank and other partners for their investments in the modelling and analytics to drive disbursement of funding in advance of credibly-predicted disasters and stresses, which are most often related to climate change. The range in estimates of cost savings in terms of lives and expenses by early action is wide — from $7 to $50 for every single dollar invested — but it resoundingly demonstrates that early action is the direction in which the United Nations system must go. We would welcome the use of these climate-linked forecasts in Security Council deliberations, with the objective of mobilizing resources and mandates before, rather than after, a crisis spirals out of control. Thirdly, we believe in a principle of “do no harm” for Council-mandated missions. Missions should have enhanced guidance and internal controls to ensure that they are not intensifying local climate effects, such as groundwater depletion or deforestation. Renewables should also become the first consideration for a mission’s energy supply, with the added benefit that they are cheaper than diesel in almost all multi-year deployments and create long-term infrastructure for local communities as part of a peace dividend. We highlight the work of Energy Peace Partners and the International Renewable Energy Agency in this regard. Lastly, the Security Council’s response to climate change needs to be coordinated with other parts of the United Nations system and its partners and must be focused on conflict prevention and climate adaptation as two sides of the same coin. As part of the broader concept of anticipatory action, it is clear that resilience-focused development and humanitarian activities must increase in countries that are vulnerable to both climate change and insecurity, in order to curtail the likelihood of conflict. Accordingly, we would expect warnings in the Security Council on climate impacts to elicit commensurate responses in international agencies, including their boards, and vice versa. The United Arab Emirates is committed to that approach moving forward. We trust that today’s open debate can facilitate a practical, results-oriented approach to the growing wave of security threats related to climate change. It is the defining challenge of our era, and the Security Council can and must be part of the solution.

Central Asia and the Americas, Miroslav Jenča I will be very brief. Today’s discussion is evidence of the long way we have come in our efforts to understand and begin to address, thanks to the support and leadership of Member States in this and other forums, the impact of climate change on peace and security. But let us make no mistake — our actions lag behind our words. The multilateral response to the security implications of climate change does not match the magnitude of the challenge we are facing. Much more work lies ahead of us. We must work together, and we must move faster. In this regard, from the Secretariat, we look forward to more partnerships and collaboration at all levels.