EU Statement – UN Security Council Arria-formula Meeting: Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace and Security

Thank you Mr. President.  

I am delivering this statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia^*, Montenegro^*, Albania^*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

We are here to discuss climate and security, a political priority for the EU. Through this, we remain true to the rules and principles of the UN Charter, and promote the peaceful resolution of disputes among states. As we are meeting in extraordinary times with war unfolding as we speak, I cannot fail to express the EU and its Member States full solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, which undermines international security and stability. We call on Russia to immediately cease its use of force, withdraw its military forces from Ukraine and fully respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence, as stated in the General Assembly resolution adopted last Wednesday. We also condemn the involvement of Belarus in this aggression.

Mr. President, there can be no credible denial of the link between the climate emergency and security issues. Already today, millions of people are impacted by insecurity caused by climate change, or to which climate change has significantly contributed.

This is why the EU welcomes the increased focus by the Security Council and other UN bodies on the climate, peace and security nexus. December’s draft UNSC Resolution on the security implications of climate change was co-sponsored by 113 countries, indicating the broad importance of this topic within the United Nations.

Those who intend to block the discussion of these issues in the Security Council – as Russia through its veto last December – deny reality. It is fragile and poor countries who will bear the brunt of this blockage.

For those who still need convincing, I’d like to recall that last month’s IPCC report states that already now, ‘approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change’. The IPCC report reminds us that at higher global warming levels, impacts of weather and climate extremes, particularly drought, may increasingly affect violent intrastate conflict.

To limit catastrophic consequences, we need to reduce emissions. The European Union has committed itself to reduce greenhouse emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990, and to net-zero until 2050 at the latest, through a just and inclusive transition. But we need every single country, particularly major emitters such as the G20 members, to show strong climate ambition and to move to climate-neutrality by mid-century. The rapid loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation deserve our equal attention in this context.

Mr. President,

We appreciate the initiative of the United Arab Emirates to organize today’s discussion on climate finance, peace and security. Climate finance, if used well, can contribute to sustaining peace and security. The EU and its Member States are the world’s biggest contributor of climate finance, providing more than one third of the world’s public climate finance. We reconfirm the commitment by the EU and its Member States to continue scaling up their contribution to international climate finance from a wide variety of sources. We need to scale up finance supporting adaptation objectives, and to strike a better balance between mitigation and adaptation actions, particularly in the most vulnerable countries. We call on other developed countries to also increase their contribution to the collective USD 100 billion goal as a matter of urgency. We call on all countries to step up their efforts in aligning finance flows with the Paris Agreement.

The EU supports many activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage from adverse effects of climate change: development cooperation, disaster risk reduction and humanitarian aid as well as funds and initiatives inside and outside the climate process. We aim to ensure that on the one hand our climate financing is conflict sensitive and on the other hand our peace-building is climate sensitive.

Further steps can be taken. One approach is to integrate conflict sensibility in mitigation and adaptation efforts. This could be discussed, for instance within the NDC Partnership. UNDP also contributes to the analyses. National Adaptation Plans and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction are further important frameworks. The better climate-related security risks are considered in national climate policy making, the better they can be addressed by all climate finance flows.

I will stop here and look forward to the rest of the discussion.

I thank you.

* The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.