By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK- Climate was front and center at this week’s 76th United Nations General Assembly and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration has made the climate crisis a “top priority.” Blinken added that Biden has been definitive about making the climate crisis a “core element of U.S. foreign policy.” The secretary of state added that the climate crisis has been “devastating” and he said in some cases, “irreversible” that it must be of the highest priority since it affects everything from agriculture to infrastructure, from public health to food security. Blinken referred to the recent damage from Hurricane Ida and a recent record-breaking rain in Central Park as even more reason that climate must be top of the U.S. agenda. He emphasized: “We’re taking into account how every bilateral and multilateral engagement we have – every policy decision we make- will impact our goal of putting the world on a safer, more sustainable path.
Blinken referred to the “consequences” of the climate crisis “falling disproportionately” on vulnerable and low-income populations. He added that climate conditions are worsening especially in areas of the world already in conflict with high levels of violence and instability. He said the synthesis report released last week and the increasing impacts of climate as well as the comprehensive report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released last month – point to an “urgent need to dramatically cut our emissions and build our resilience for the inevitable changes to come.” To that end, Blinken explained that last April, President Biden announced that the U.S. would double our public international financing for developing countries most impacted by the climate crisis. He mentioned that earlier this week at the UN, Biden announced their team will work with the U.S. Congress to double that number again. Blinken said: “We urge other governments to step up in making these investments – particularly those, like the United States, that are the biggest emitters.”
The secretary said that the Security Council has a crucial role to play in moving work forward toward a climate crisis solution and added there are three ways to do this. He said that first it must be clear that the climate crisis topic belongs on the Security Council agenda. Blinken said the question should be asked as to how the Council can use its “unique powers” to combat the negative impacts of climate on peace and security. He added that wherever there are threats to international peace and security currently – climate change is compounding the situation – “making things less peaceful, less secure, and making our ability to respond even more challenging.” Currently, Blinken said this is the situation in Syria, Mali, Yemen, South Sudan, Ethiopia and a host of other nations where strife is the norm and not the exception. The second step is that UN field missions must consistently figure the effects of climate change into their planning and implementation which 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 as well as others. Blinken reiterated that doing this will “advance mission activities, it will foster stability, it will build resistance.” The third step and perhaps the most important – Blinken highlighted is that the UN system must continue in more detailed ways to integrate climate-related analysis into its conflict mediation and conflict prevention efforts, specifically in fragile states and areas of active conflict. As well, the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs decision to include climate security in its Strategic Plan for the very first time in 2020 as well as the Climate Security Mechanism are, Blinken said, “positive examples.”
He said there is an “unprecedented opportunity” to further develop access to affordable, clean energy, build green infrastructure, create good-paying jobs that could increase long-term economic growth and reverse inequality between nations while improving lives around the globe. Blinken said “let’s not lose sight of this once-in-a-generation global opportunity. Let’s be driven not only by the fear of all the damage the climate crisis can inflict – and already has inflicted – but also by the imagination of all the ways our response can actually make people’s lives better, now and into the future.”
