India calls for cautionary approach to link climate change.

UNITED NATIONS: India has called for adopting a cautionary approach on linking climate change to security and giving the UN Security Council the right to take action to address it, saying overly militarised solutions to problems which require non-military responses bring the "wrong actors" to the table. 

Rising sea levels are threatening coastal
towns and cities across the globe

A "mere decision of the Council" to takeover enforcement of climate change action would disrupt the 2105 Paris Agreement and multilateral efforts to find solutions, India's permanent representative Syed Akbaruddin told the Security Council on Friday. 

He was speaking at the UN Security Council's open debate on 'Addressing the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security' 

"Climate Change is an unprecedented challenge to global civilisation," he said. 

Read the story from The Economic Times - “India calls for cautionary approach to link climate change.”

Nature and wildlife need a seat at the table

Whether we consider wild weather, unprecedented Arctic melting and global temperatures, or the Great Barrier Reef, the global environment is generating alarming news. Predictions of multi-metre sea level rises, the collapse of marine biodiversity and food chains, and global warming far beyond 2℃ are equally concerning. Is our system of global environmental law and governance adequate to this crisis?

Our short answer is “no”, but what should be done? We believe new international institutions and laws are needed, with one fundamental purpose: to give a voice to ecosystems and non-human forms of life.

We say this knowing that the current global system is inadequate to respond to many human crises, but with the conviction that environmental justice often overlaps with social justice.

It is tempting to believe that we can muddle through with the existing system, centred on the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity. But these are not integrated with each other, and are also kept separate from global economic and trade institutions like the World Trade Organisation, the G20 and the World Bank, and from global security institutions like the UN Security Council. The latter has never passed a resolution about the environment, despite growing warnings from military strategists of the potential for climate-catalysed conflict.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Associate Professor of International and Political Studies at the University of NSW,  Anthony Burke, and an Assistant Professor from the University of Alabama, Stefanie Fishel -  "Politics for the planet: why nature and wildlife need their own seats at the UN.”