Climate and the UN: A new bid for control?

Climate and the UN: A new bid for control?

VIEWPOINT Felix Dodds and Richard Sherman

At a recent United Nations debate, the UK argued that the Security Council should take a central role in responding to climate change. But, ask Felix Dodds and Richard Sherman in this week's Green Room, is this yet another way for rich nations to protect their own borders and interests?

This UN debate on energy, security and climate... can definitely be seen as a historic event

While governments are preoccupied with negotiations on future international action when the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires in 2012, a more recent debate held in the UN Security Council elevated the climate struggle to a new level.

Central were the weighty questions: is climate change a threat to international peace and security, and, if so, does the Security Council have a role to play in generating intergovernmental consensus on a global response?

This UN debate on energy, security and climate, which took place on 17 April, can definitely be seen as a historic event - and might, by some, even be seen as an evolutionary step in the climate debate.

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