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“Climate change is a threat to our security,” Boris Johnson told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
It was the first time in almost 30 years that the British Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Security Council. According to the British government press release, this is also the first time that the Security Council has discussed the climate at the leadership level.
Johnson’s speeches to the other member states addressed, among other things, the need to reduce global emissions, as well as to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.
Fear of disaster
The meeting was attended, among others, by the British national prosecutor Sir David Attenborough, who for years has warned of the consequences of climate change.
During the meeting, he reached the participants with the following conclusion:
– Please don’t make any mistakes. Climate change is the greatest security threat modern man has ever faced.
In the gripping post, the television veteran stated that we are dangerously close to several tipping points that, if exceeded, will raise global temperatures to catastrophic levels.
– It is not possible to turn around. No matter what we do now, it is too late to avoid climate change. Now it is certain that the poorest and most vulnerable, those with the least security, will suffer.
It hasn’t happened in 12,000 years.
Believe that the climate summit is the last chance
Boris Johnson also used Security Council speaking time to highlight some of the steps the UK is taking to reduce its own emissions.
According to the BBC, Greenpeace was quick to receive, among others, criticism. The organization believes that the prime minister’s call to action lacks credibility, provided his government approves the development of coal mines and cuts budgets for energy efficiency measures that cut emissions.
In 2021, the British will also host the next G7 physical summit, to be held in Cornwall in June, and the UN COP26 climate summit, to be held in Glasgow in November.
Attenborough believes that the climate summit is potentially the last chance for top leaders to come up with the necessary measures to save the planet.
“If we objectively view climate change and the loss of nature as threats to global security, as they are, we can still act in a proportionate and timely manner,” he said.
– Much more destructive than the crown
Emissions keep increasing
In December, it was five years since the signing of the Paris Agreement. Since then, harmful greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise. The extraction of fossil fuels, which is the main source of emissions, is expected to increase by 2 percent per year until 2030.
Every year, UK-sized forest areas are also cut down, which might otherwise have accumulated large amounts of CO₂.
However, there are bright spots. An increasing number of countries and regions say their goal is to become climate neutral by 2050, including the EU, China, Japan and South Korea.
Together with the United States, where incoming President Joe Biden has laid out ambitious climate plans, these countries today account for about two-thirds of the world’s total harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
National targets on how to reduce emissions are central to the Paris Agreement. The idea is that these will become more acute every five years, so that the level of ambition will gradually rise.
Under the agreement, countries must present new plans for climate cuts before the end of the year or before the COP26 climate meeting. Last year’s meeting was postponed as a result of the corona pandemic.
