Download USG Remarks at the Security Council Arria Formula - UN

Remarks
by
Mr. Gyan Chandra Acharya
Under-Secretary-General
High Representative
for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries
and Small Island Developing States
at
the Security Council Arria Formula Meeting on “Security
Dimensions of Climate Change”
15 February 2013, New York
Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Fellow Panellists, Ladies and Gentlemen
Let me begin by thanking Your Excellencies, Ambassador Masood Kahn and
Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant organizing this important Security Council Arria formula
meeting on the ‘the Security Dimensions of Climate Change’.
There has been some excellent presentations from fellow panellists. I hope to add my
voice to these discussions by focusing on some of the security implications of the impacts
of climate change on the most vulnerable countries.
In 2009 a resident on the Carteret Atoll in Papua New Guinea described the encroaching
sea that was threatening to inundate her island as “a scary feeling [as] you don’t know
what is going to happen to you, that [at] any minute you will be floating”. The resident,
Ms. Rakova, was the head of a programme to relocate residents of the atoll to a bigger
and safer island, some fifty miles away.
Mr. Marese, another resident and leader of the island community commented at that time
that “there is no solution but to leave,” and while “it is difficult […] we have to leave to
save our lives”.
That is an event on an island, and Minister deBrum of Marshall Islands and the President
Tong of Kiribati gave some of the examples of the effects on their island nations by rising
sea-levels. What happens when all the islands of a country face similar fate? That would
be an existential threat. 99-100% of the populations of Kiribati, Maldives and Marshall
Islands, reside within 5 meters of sea-level. On average, one third of the total population
of SIDS resides within 5-meter of the sea level.
Similarly in the Caribbean, higher frequency and severe intensity of storms and
superstorms have been a norm in the last decade. IPCC assessments had projected sealevel rise, intense hurricane and cyclone weather events. The climate-induced severity
has caused enormous number of deaths and loss of livelihood. So is the case in many
other regions where they face severe coastal erosions and loss of biodiversity in the
oceans due to climate change effects.
Excellencies,
I refer to these episodes and the plights in these low-lying islands to highlight the fact that
sea-level rise is real and a fearful prospect. There is no doubt that for them, sea-level rise
due to climate change has security implications. Their islands, their way of life, culture
and history, their home and, in sum, identities are at stake. Unfortunately, we will be
hearing a growing number of these episodes, as the stark reality of more and severe
adverse impacts of climate change take hold.
The international community has recognized the threat that climate change pose to Small
Island Developing States. The Rio+20 outcome stated that sea-level rise and other
adverse impacts of climate change continue to pose a significant risk to Small Island
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Developing States and their efforts to achieve sustainable development and, for many,
represent the gravest of threats to their survival and viability, including for some through
the loss of territory.
The recognition of ‘this gravest of threats’ is in itself an affirmation that climate change
for many Small Island Developing States has survival and thus fundamental security
implications. Indeed, many would argue that there is no higher security threat than the
loss of territory. With some Small Island Developing States total coastlines measuring
only some 30 or 25 km, it is no wonder that the potential of losing further shorelines due
to encroaching climate-change-induced sea-level rise has significant security implications
for these island nations.
Excellencies,
For LDCs, the international community through the 2011 Istanbul programme of Action
pledged to address the challenges of livelihood and food security and health of the people
affected by the adverse impact of climate change and respond to the needs of the people
displaced as a result of extreme weather events, where appropriate, at national, regional
and international levels.
All the various vulnerability indicators point out that SIDS and LDCs are most vulnerable
from climate change impacts. We are all aware that severe vulnerabilities, if not
addressed in time, become a security threat in the longer term.
Climate change is expected to exacerbate current stresses on water resources. These
resources are already facing rapid population growth, over exploitation for economic
growth and land-use change. Coastal erosion, desertification, growing dry lands and
drying up of water wells in various LDCs have caused displacements and are already the
likely causes of some of the conflicts. We are made aware of the close nexus between
water, energy and food security. Studies have also shown that in the next seven years,
over 100 million people in the African LDCs are projected to be exposed to increased
water stress due to climate change.
Similarly, mountain snow packs and glaciers play a crucial role in freshwater availability
and hydro energy in many parts of the world. Widespread mass losses from glaciers and
reductions in snow cover over recent decades due to climate change are palpable. In some
regions, like the Hindu Kush and Himalayan region, which is considered the Third Pole,
the rate of retreat has doubled in the last decade. Glacial lake outbursts are real, and
which if not drained in time, could destroy lives and infrastructure. The glaciers are
receding everywhere, and are projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century,
reducing water availability, hydropower potential, and changing seasonality of flows in
regions supplied by melt water from major mountain ranges, including those in least
developed countries.
The cross-cutting nature of the effects of climate change across the spectrum of what
would otherwise be development related issues therefore raises security implications, at
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various levels. The Secretary-General, in his 2009 report on ‘Climate Change and its
Possible Security Implications’, described climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’. It
outlined a number of emerging climate related threats, which included loss of territory,
statelessness and increased numbers of displaced persons; stress on shared international
water resources, for example, with the melting of glaciers. The Secretary-General
himself visited a number of countries in the Pacific to raise the profile of the issues
associated with impacts of climate change.
As explained earlier, these threats will be affecting many of the Least Developed
Countries and Small Island Developing States. Indeed, the distribution of the impacts
from these threats, as studies have shown, is tilted against those which are most
vulnerable and who lack the basic capacity to deal with them.
Impacts such as the loss of territory raise the other potentially broader legal and political
considerations as well, which might even test current international cooperation
modalities. Small Island Developing States, many of whom are archipelagic, may, for
example, be affected by matters that touch on their territorial integrity and other ocean
space related issues, including those governed by international legal instruments.
The displacement of populations, as I alluded to above in the situation of the Carteret
Atoll, could only be the beginning of the new reality in a warming globe. While that
example was one of internal displacement, it may not be long before we hear of episodes
of internationally displaced populations.
Already the leaders of Small Island Developing States and LDCs, such as Kiribati and
Tuvalu, are openly exploring ideas regarding the relocation of a number of their
populations to larger island countries and continents. For these countries and their
peoples at least, the security implications of climate change are as real as the sea
encroaching and eroding their already limited space.
Excellencies,
Global mean warming is now approximately 0.8°C above preindustrial levels. As
mentioned in the recent ‘Turn Down the Heat’ report of the World Bank, present
emission trends is putting the world plausibly on a path toward 4°C warming within the
century. Similarly UNEP’s 2012 Emissions Gap report gave an updated estimate of the
2020 emissions gap of 8 to 13 gigatonnes of equivalent CO2, larger than earlier
estimates. This is not a pathway to stay within the two degrees climate target. We are at a
tipping point.
Such a scenario could have major economic, social, environmental and indeed security
implications for Small Island Developing States and the Least Developed Countries,
because they have the least economic, institutional, scientific, and technical capacity to
cope and adapt.
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Sooner or later, more States may face this same reality and the consequences for their
population. The impacts of climate change are likely to cuts across the whole spectrum
of the global agenda. This is important as we look towards the post 2015 development
agenda. It calls for increased cooperation and support to the most vulnerable groups of
countries and also calls for an ambitious global mitigation and adaptation plans. We must
ensure that there is a close interface between science and policy. It is time for concerted
action on all fronts. The Secretary-General’s call for a leaders’ meeting in 2014 provides
an opportunity for concrete action and ambitious vision in collectively addressing the
negative impacts of climate change.
I thank you for your attention,
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