The United Nations Security Council and Climate Change: Mapping a Pragmatic Pathway to Intervention

Abstract

The possibility of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) engaging climate change is not one new to academic discourse. Since at least 1992 the UNSC has been examined as a means in which to provide renewed impetus to the climate change response agenda. Despite this, there has been very little progress in terms of UNSC engagement. One reason for this advocated by Conca et al., is that when states and other interested parties argue for a climate change intervention they do so with a lack of clarity as to what form it should take and what benefits might follow. This paper intends to address this particular aspect of the debate and pose pragmatic answers to why the UNSC should engage, how it could engage, and what benefit it could bring to the climate change regime.

The Research on the Optimization Path of the Security Council’s Authority to Deal with the Global Climate Crisis

“…Meanwhile, The UNSC could pick up the recent IPCC Report and transplant some of its core findings into a resolution. This would give the IPCC findings a forum in which to have greater impact and would provide the UNSC a sound platform from which to draw from in the creation of its non-binding but precise directives [9]. Policies and treaties instated by the UN should involve listening to the opinions of both the G-77 and Umbrella Group to ensure balance, and should attempt to reduce the amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere as an attempt to solve the greenhouse gas problem.…”