{"id":40363,"date":"2021-09-23T17:35:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T00:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=40363"},"modified":"2021-09-23T17:35:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T00:35:43","slug":"secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-un-security-council-meeting-on-climate-and-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=40363","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Antony J. Blinken At UN Security Council Meeting on Climate and Security"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
09\/23\/2021 11:42 AM EDT<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

New York City, New York<\/p>\n

UN Headquarters<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:<\/b>\u00a0 Thank you very much,\u00a0Taoiseach<\/i>.\u00a0 Secretary-General Guterres, thank you for your presence, thank you for your leadership on climate.\u00a0 And\u00a0Taoiseach<\/i>, thank you so much for convening today\u2019s discussion, for putting the connection between climate and security on the Security Council\u2019s agenda.\u00a0 And thank you as well, together with our colleagues from Niger, for the important work that Ireland and Niger are doing with the Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security.\u00a0 I also want to applaud Ms. Elman\u2019s very powerful testimony.\u00a0 We\u2019re grateful to have it today.<\/p>\n

From day one, President Biden has made addressing the climate crisis a top priority of our administration, including by directing me \u2013 and every one of our diplomats \u2013 to ensure it\u2019s a core element of U.S. foreign policy.\u00a0 We\u2019re taking into account how every bilateral and multilateral engagement we have \u2013 every policy decision we make \u2013 will impact our goal of putting the world on a safer, more sustainable path.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not only because of the devastating \u2013 and in some instances, irreversible \u2013 implications of climate change for our majestic planet.\u00a0 It\u2019s also because of the cascading effects on virtually every aspect of our lives, from agriculture to infrastructure, from public health to food security.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve heard some of those described already.<\/p>\n

Right here in New York City where we\u2019re gathered today, earlier this month, a punishing storm caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed dozens of people, including a two-year-old boy, and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage.\u00a0 More than three inches of rain fell in Central Park in a single hour, breaking a record set only a few weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Look at any one of our countries, you will see record-breaking extreme weather events like this.\u00a0 The climate crisis isn\u2019t coming.\u00a0 It\u2019s already here.<\/p>\n

And clear patterns are emerging in its impact.\u00a0 The consequences are falling disproportionately on vulnerable and low-income populations.\u00a0 And they\u2019re worsening conditions and human suffering in places already afflicted by conflict, high levels of violence, instability.<\/p>\n

These mounting impacts \u2013 together with the synthesis report released last week and the comprehensive report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released last month \u2013 underscore the urgent need to dramatically cut our emissions and build our resilience for the inevitable changes to come.<\/p>\n

One way to do that is by helping others to do their part. \u00a0Back in April, President Biden announced that the United States would double our public international financing for developing countries most impacted by the climate crisis.\u00a0 Earlier this week, here at the United Nations, he announced that we will work with the U.S. Congress to double that number again.\u00a0 We urge other governments to step up in making these investments \u2013 particularly those, like the United States, that are the biggest emitters.<\/p>\n

The Security Council also has a vital role to play \u2013 in three ways that I\u2019d like to briefly suggest.<\/p>\n

First, we have to stop debating whether the climate crisis belongs in the Security Council and instead ask how the Council can leverage its unique powers to tackle the negative impacts of climate on peace and security.\u00a0 That\u2019s an argument that should have been settled a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Look at almost every place where you see threats to international peace and security today \u2013 and you\u2019ll find that climate change is making things less peaceful, less secure, and rendering our response even more challenging.\u00a0 That\u2019s the story of Syria, Mali, Yemen, South Sudan, Ethiopia, many other places beset by strife.\u00a0 By agreeing that the issue belongs here in the Security Council, we\u2019ll also send a clear message to the international community of the serious implications that climate change has for our collective security.<\/p>\n

Second, UN field missions should consistently incorporate the effects of climate change into their planning and implementation, as was done in the mandates for the UN Assistance Missions for Iraq, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, and the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, among others.\u00a0 Doing that will advance mission activities; it will foster stability; it will build resilience.<\/p>\n

Third, the UN system should further integrate climate-related analysis into its conflict mediation and conflict prevention efforts, particularly in fragile states and areas of active conflict.\u00a0 The UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs decision to include climate security in its Strategic Plan for the first time in 2020 and the Climate Security Mechanism are very positive examples of just this.<\/p>\n

To any who doubt the merits of these steps, I\u2019d just encourage you to just ask some of the UN force commanders, the special envoys, the negotiators, the peacebuilders, others who are out there grappling with the impacts of climate in their everyday efforts.\u00a0 They are hungry for more tools like these.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve focused today on the threats posed by the climate crisis.\u00a0 But let me just say in closing, it would be a mistake to view this only through that lens.<\/p>\n

We agree that to prevent cataclysmic consequences, all our nations must take immediate, bold actions to build resilience, to adapt to the unavoidable impacts, and move swiftly to a net-zero world.\u00a0 That is our shared charge for COP26, which is now only weeks away.\u00a0 And if we\u2019re to keep within reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, every nation will need to bring their highest possible ambitions to the table.<\/p>\n

But these efforts \u2013 and the investments they will require from all of us \u2013 also present an unprecedented opportunity to expand access to affordable, clean energy; to build green infrastructure; to create good-paying jobs \u2013 all of which could be the spur to long-term economic growth, reverse growing inequities within and between our nations, improve the lives of people around the world.<\/p>\n

So even as we are clear-eyed about the threat, let\u2019s not lose sight of this once-in-a-generation global opportunity.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be driven not only by the fear of all the damage the climate crisis can inflict \u2013 and already has inflicted \u2013 but also by the imagination of all the ways our response can actually make people\u2019s lives better, now and into the future.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

09\/23\/2021 11:42 AM EDT   Antony...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40364,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40363\/revisions\/40364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}