Small island states and Britain warn UN of climate security threats

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – After powerful Hurricane Irma destroyed 90% of homes on the Caribbean island of Barbuda in 2017, the government – faced with a second storm that hit – evacuated 1,600 residents to the country’s largest island, Antigua.

“What if Hurricane Irma had moved a few miles south and hit both islands? Prime Minister Gaston Browne pondered in a speech to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, during a discussion on the rise in security risks linked to climate change.

As a warming world poses increasing threats to the life and stability of vulnerable island states, “what plan and international system would my country resort to, following such an attack on our peace and security?” ? He asked.

Major changes – from new tools to forecast and prepare for climate-related security threats to changes in international law to accommodate “climate refugees” – are now urgently needed to protect people, Browne told other leaders global.

“Make no mistake, the existential threat of climate change to our own survival is not a future consideration, but a current reality,” he said at the virtual event.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted the session ahead of the UN COP26 climate talks scheduled for November in Glasgow, said climate change had become “a geopolitical issue as well as an environmental issue”.

Around the world, weather-related disasters now displace 16 million people a year and fuel migration, water shortages and crop failures, also making vulnerable people prey to violent extremists and human traffickers , did he declare.

The impacts of climate change – from rising sea levels to worsening forest fires, droughts, floods and storms – undermine development in poor countries and will worsen without swift action to reduce global warming emissions, he and others said.

The dangers are increasingly evident for rich and poor countries alike, they added, whether in the form of wilder weather, soaring insurance costs or more. large number of migrants crossing borders.

“It is absolutely clear that climate change is a threat to our collective security and the security of our nations,” Johnson said.

“Whether you like it or not, it’s a question of when, not if, your country and your people will face the security impacts of climate change. “

‘FRONT AND CENTER’

Through the UN climate negotiations and other groups, countries have taken steps to address growing risks, including creating new insurance pools for poor countries threatened by extreme weather conditions.

As part of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the richest countries have also pledged to raise $ 100 billion a year from 2020 to help the poorest countries grow cleanly and adapt. more extreme weather conditions and rising seas – a goal yet to be achieved.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) has lobbied for three decades for a formal way to deal with the inevitable “loss and damage” from climate change, including the potential loss of entire islands to the high seas. .

A “Warsaw Mechanism” to deal with climate loss and damage has been created as part of the UN talks – but little help is offered outside of insurance policy support.

So far, representatives of small island states said, international action has lagged behind, with Browne calling the efforts “fragmented and frankly insufficient.”

Aubrey Webson, president of AOSIS and Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United Nations, said getting the UN Security Council to support faster action on climate risks could open the way forward at COP26.

“What we might need to see is that the Security Council uses its muscles to move the COP forward,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.