Climate Change as a Threat to Regional Peace and Security and the Role of the UNSC: An India-EU Perspective in Context

Abstract

Climate change has increasingly come to be viewed as a security threat, as well as a ‘threat multiplier’. The impact of this has become a cause for major international concern, especially in light of national contributions to climate change, by virtue of heavy industrial dependence on polluting processes. To address this issue, certain national lobbies have suggested that the United Nations Security Council should be made legislate on the issue, given its bearing on international security. This approach has been supported by nations and blocs like the United States, the EU, the Pacific Islands, etc. An alternate lobby, comprising states like India, have argued against this approach due to the UNSC’s fractured mandate, and expressed their wish to keep deliberations more representative. This paper shall evaluate the context of climate change, the legal principles underlying it, and argue in favor of the Indian stand that the UNSC is not the appropriate institution to make policy decisions on this matter.

Keywords

• India
• EU
• United Nations
• climate change
• international policy