Security in a ‘Warming World’: Competences of the Un Security Council for Preventing Dangerous Climate Change
Without resolute counteraction, the effects of climate change are likely to exceed many societies’ adaptive capacities to internal or external stresses within the coming decades. This could result in destabilization and violence, jeopardizing national and international security to a new and unknown degree.2 Currently there still is a window of opportunity for avoiding dangerous anthropogenic climate change by adopting a dynamic and coordinated global climate policy. Yet, the outlook of getting an effective international climate treaty into place in time to avoid dangerous climate change is dim; the chances for stopping climate change at a non-dangerous level rapidly decreasing. If not halted, the likelihood sharply increases that climate change will draw ever deeper lines of division and conflict in international relations. It has the potential to trigger numerous conflicts between and within countries over the distribution of resources (especially water and land), over the management of migration, or over compensation payments between the countries mainly responsible for climate change and those countries most affected by its destructive effects.3 In giving recognition to this threat, on April, the Security Council held its first-ever debate on the impact of climate change on international peace and security.4 No concrete action or decision followed this debate.The main achievement was perhaps that of global awareness rising of the consequences of climate change rather than any concrete outcome. Prior and during the debate there had been strong opposition from some countries to any suggestion that the Security Council play a role in the international response to climate change. At the same time, the ever-increasing urgency of decisive action to address climate change, combined with the challenge’s scale and complexity, suggest that at this stage all options (including a more active role of the Security Council) ought to be examined. The second part will give an overview over the controversial discussion about the link between climate change and security threats. The third part deals with the normative concept of peace and security in the UN Charter and its relationship to climate change as a (possible) non-military threat. Part four assesses the current multilateral climate regime for its effectiveness to prevent climate change related threats.The fifth part investigates the mandate of the Security Council with regard to addressing environmental threats.Of particular interest in this context are the Council’s competences to impose sanctions, to ‘legislate’, and to condemn state actions or in actions.5 Also, in this part, the competences of the Security Council to request of the International Court of Justice an advisory on opinion legal questions in relation to climate change will be analyzed in connection. Part six concludes this chapter.
Kompetencje Rady Bezpieczeństwa ONZ w sprawach klimatycznych
Originally, the UN Security Council was entrusted with the competences to maintain international peace and security as a state without armed confl ict. These competencies have been extended and nowadays they include humanitarian and epidemiological issues. This is related to the changing scope of the notion of ‘threat to peace’, which already includes acts of violation of human rights, terrorist acts and epidemics. More and more attention is paid to threats resulting from climate change in international documents. An example is the new concept of the so-called climate confl ict. The indicated threats have given rise to discussions on climate change in the UN Security Council. The debates also dealt with the question of possible competences of this body in climatic matters. Among the members of the UN Security Council, including permanent members, there was a clear difference of opinions. The resolutions 2349 (2017) and 2408 (2018) can be seen as a turning point in the discussion, in which the UN Security Council unanimously recognised the relationship between climate change and international security. The Security Council’s competences in climate matters could be based on articles 33.2, 34, 38, 40, 41, 42 and 96 of the UN Charter. Despite the evolution of the approach to the climate dimension of security, the UN Security Council is still far from issuing a resolution on climate change including obligations on countries or companies, for instance in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a member of the UN Security Council, Poland should work on consensus in this regard.
The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term
The "war on terror" and the battle in Iraq provided the framework for George W. Bush's first term in office. As he embarked on a second term, the president reaffirmed his administration's commitment to a transformative Middle East agenda that now includes the challenges of promoting democracy, non-proliferation, and Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Saban Center at the Brookings Institution commissioned a group of its experts to critique the Bush administration's first-term performance and present alternative approaches for its second term. The Road Ahead covers the full set of challenges confronting President Bush in his second term: from fighting Binladenism to promoting Arab reform; from achieving Middle East peace to saving Iraq; and from tackling Iran to engaging Syria and Saudi Arabia. The contributors argue that the Bush administration will need to develop an integrated Middle East strategy that improves the prospects for achieving a priority identified during the 2004 presidential campaign: strengthening alliances and utilizing them to ease the burden on American leadership. The Road Ahead provides the necessary elements for a genuinely integrated strategic framework that will help decisionmakers manage both the changes and the continuities in America's post-9/11 Middle East policy. Contributors: Martin Indyk, Flynt Leverett, Kenneth Pollack, James Steinberg, Shibley Telhami, and Tamara Cofman Wittes, all connected with the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. A Saban Center Report