Prof Shirley Scott (University of New South Wales)

Climate Security and the UN Security Council

Thursday, July 2, 2015, 12.15 pm
Allende-Platz 1, Raum 250.

Over the last decade there has been an evolving debate both within the United Nations and within the scholarly literature, as to whether it would be feasible and-or advantageous for the United Nations Security Council to consider climate change as within its purview. Given that irreversible global warming is underway and that this will inevitably have multiple global security implications – and indeed, that the Council has to some degree already addressed the issue – such a debate has become anachronistic. This presentation will review some of the factors that need to be taken into account in moving beyond a binary discussion of whether or not the Security Council should consider climate change. It maps four broad categories of action, situates the Council response to date within those categories, the liklihood of each being perceived as legitimate, and the prospects for an increased Council role in future.