Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
famously suggested that prioritising climate issues in the midst of an economic crisis
was
.
The proactive role adopted by a number of member states in pushing for UNSC
coverage of climate security has brought European governments into con
'
like someone with pneumonia thinking about having a hairdo
'
ict with
rising powers and developing states that prefer to see climate change dealt with in
the UN
s development and social bodies, and not treated institutionally as a pri-
marily security-related topic. This became a hotly debated issue during Germany
'
'
s
2011 UNSC presidency. Two years on from his original,
agship speech on cli-
mate security, Ban Ki-moon spoke again on the climate change
international
security nexus, at a July 2011 UN debate on the topic. The secretary general
argued that the geopolitical link had become even more palpable; predicted that
'
-
'
mega crises may well become the new normal
; and lamented that there was still a
need for
erent areas of
security policy.
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The UN debate in 2011 was seen as successful to the extent that
China did not object to the UNSC at least discussing the issue. But in this debate,
Russia, China and most developing nations rejected the European argument that
the Security Council should have a formal mandate to address the security impli-
cations of climate change. Nauru
'
joining the dots
'
between climate change policy and di
s permanent representative to the UN reacted
angrily, arguing that if the UN did not appoint a special representative for climate
change and security then action would be too tardy and limited; she reassured that
such a
'
gure would not cut across the UNFCCC and would not lead to a spate of
blue helmet military interventions designed to restrict countries
'
use of energy
-
both fears expressed by opponents of a UNSC mandate.
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European support provided a
llip to these initiatives. European e
orts at the
UN constitute an important pillar of the EU
s climate security strategy, even if
progress here has been limited. The UN secretary general has asked for help from
the EU in preparing several of his papers and speeches on climate security. Senior
diplomats insist that the EU has tried to raise climate security questions at the
Copenhagen, Cancun, Durban, Doha and Warsaw summits, from 2009 to 2013,
even if it was rebu
'
ed by other powers in doing so.
Institutional inertia
This plethora of commitments, at member state and EU level, represents genuine
and signi
rmly on the EU agenda. Climate
change is conceived as an issue relevant to security strategy in a way that was not
the case a decade ago. However, the EU
cant progress. Climate security is now
'
s foreign policy machinery
-
in Brussels
and the national capitals
has still declined to accord climate security an unequi-
vocal priority. The familiar problems of institutional coordination that beset EU
external policies in general are particularly acute in climate security, as this issue
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