Climate change and peace and security – the Chinese and Indian views

On 23 February, a high-level debate was convened at the United Nations Security Council by the United Kingdom. The UK is the host of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, in November. The UN Security Council event, entitled ‘Maintenance of international peace and security: Addressing climate-related risks to international peace and security’, was convened virtually and chaired by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who called for action now. ‘Whether you like it or not, it is a matter of when, not if, your country and your people will have to deal with the security impacts of climate change,’ Johnson said, calling for global leadership to keep the world safe.  Among the developing countries which took part in the debate were China and India. The Third World Network (TWN) obtained the statements of Xie Zhenhua, the Chinese Special Envoy on Climate Change Affairs, and India’s Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar. Some of the main messages from their speeches are set out below.

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Working together in response to climate change

Xie Zhenhua:

Climate change has become an urgent and serious threat to human survival, development and security. The Paris Agreement reached in 2015 is a milestone in addressing climate change globally and has built the institutional foundation for the international community to strengthen action and international cooperation in response to climate change after 2020. Currently, addressing climate change globally has entered a critical stage for full implementation of the Paris Agreement. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a severe challenge to global efforts for a response to climate change. China hopes that the international community will unite further and jointly head in the right direction to respond to climate change. 

First, resolutely implement the international consensus. Tackling climate change is still a long process. The major task is to fully and effectively implement the Paris Agreement, to ensure the achievement of the goals, and jointly respond to the challenges of global climate change. 

Developed countries and developing countries have differentiated historical responsibili-ties, and different development stages and coping capacity. It is a must to abide by the principles of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’, equity and their respective capabilities, respect and support various countries to determine contribution targets based on their national circumstances, and avoid ‘one size fits all’. Developed countries must fulfil their obligation to take the lead in mitigation of emissions, and fulfil their commitments tangibly, and provide stronger financial and technical support to help developing countries improve their capacities to respond to climate change. Developing countries should also make all effort to take active action on climate change.

Second, actively promote ‘green resilience’. The COVID-19 pandemic once again warns human beings to respect and adapt to nature more. In the post-pandemic era, when countries work for economic recovery, we cannot be back on the old path. We must aggressively promote the development of new energy, environmental protection and other environment-friendly industries, and continue to innovate in the path of green and low-carbon transformation. We should build an ecosystem that respects nature and protects global biodiversity. We should advocate a green and environmentally friendly lifestyle, and promote humanity living in harmony with nature.

Third, promote sustainable development with great effort. After all, the issue of climate change is a development issue. Sustainable development is the ‘master switch’ to find solutions to all problems and the ‘golden key’ to eliminate the root causes of conflicts. The international community should help countries in conflict areas, the least developed countries and small island developing states to increase their capacity for development. Each country should be encouraged to integrate climate change into its national economic and social development programmes and, by various means, make every effort to achieve the goals of synergistic development of economic growth, poverty eradication, employment promotion, health protection, environmental protection and response to climate change.

Fourth, always uphold multilateralism. In facing the challenge of climate change, humankind must move towards a common destiny. The international community should continue to relate to the UNFCCC as its main channel to promote cooperation in response to climate change under the framework of the Convention and the Paris Agreement. The Convention secretariat, the United Nations development system and resident coordinators should actively respond to needs of relevant countries in responding to climate change and economic and social development in accordance with their respective mandates, and provide targeted support. 

The role of the Security Council in addressing climate change should be in line with its own mandates.

China is not only an important contributor to reaching the Paris Agreement, but also an active practitioner in the implementation of the Agreement:

• We insist on taking responsibility. Last September, President Xi Jinping announced that China would strive to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and strive to go carbon-neutral by 2060, which has been widely praised by the international community. At the Climate Ambition Summit in December, President Xi further announced a series of new measures for China to scale up its nationally determined contribution (NDC). From a carbon peak to carbon neutrality, it will take 50 to 60 years for developed countries, and China will make arduous efforts and strive to achieve this aim in 30 years. This reflects China’s efforts and ambition in response to climate change.

• We will pursue development in a green way. China’s carbon intensity (of GDP) was 48.4% lower in 2020 than in 2005, the base year of its NDC target. By the end of 2019, China’s non-fossil energy had accounted for 15.3% of primary energy consumption, fulfilling the 2020 commitment target ahead of schedule. Up to now, China’s forest stock volume has kept growth for 30 consecutive years, with an increase of more than 4.5 billion cubic metres compared with 2005, and has exceeded the 2020 target. China has become the country with the largest number of new energy vehicles. It has been ranked first in the world for consecutive years in the number of patents, investments, installed capacity and power generation in renewable energy, and the installed wind power and photovoltaic power has accounted for more than 30% of the world total.

• We pursue win-win cooperation. China and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) jointly initiated an international ‘Belt and Road’ green development alliance to help countries along the route build hydropower, wind power, photovoltaic and other renewable energy projects. 

China and other developing countries are building low-carbon demonstration zones and implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation projects under the framework of South-South cooperation to promote green development in all countries. 

This year, China will host the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. We look forward to discussing new strategies for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework with all parties.

We strongly believe that as long as all countries work together to promote full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, establishment of a mutually beneficial and equitable climate regime, and sustainable development, we will be able to have a clean and beautiful planet with enduring peace, universal security and common prosperity.

Towards a development pathway based on need, not greed

Prakash Javadekar:

Climate change is a defining issue of our time. Without drastic actions by us collectively, adapting to its impacts in the future may well be impossible but definitely more difficult and costlier.

The global community has addressed the issue of climate change through various mechanisms, central to which are the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement negotiated under the Framework. Together they represent a delicately balanced global democratic effort to take climate action in a nationally determined manner based on certain fundamental agreed principles, the foremost amongst which is ‘common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities’ and which must underlie all future discussions on climate change. Therefore, before we start discussing the issue of securitisation of climate, we need to ensure that we are not building a parallel climate track where these mechanisms and principles are brushed aside or not duly considered.

The 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report ‘Climate Change and Land’ says that extreme weather and climate or slow-onset events may lead to increased displacement, disrupted food chains, threatened livelihoods, and could contribute to exacerbated stresses for conflict. Even the best science available claims that climate change only exacerbates conflict and is not a reason for conflict and does not threaten peace and security.

There is no common, widely accepted methodology for assessing the links between climate change, conflict and fragility. Fragility and climate impact are highly context-specific. In addition, both peace and conflict assessments, as well as vulnerability assessments, face significant challenges when it comes to data availability and impact measurement.

In a number of fragile contexts, where governments are struggling to provide basic services due to capacity and legitimacy issues, instances of chronic emergency conditions and famine risks are largely driven by continued political violence disrupting harvests and aid supplies rather than by climate factors alone. This underscores the idea that a complete picture of climate vulnerability only emerges with an assessment of the state’s capacity to be the primary responder to interrelated environmental, social, economic and security dynamics.

The nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are largely about mitigation commitments and adaptation requirements that, collectively, determine whether countries will achieve the Paris goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2°C. Parties are nowhere required to communicate on climate-related security risks in their NDCs.

Moreover, an in-depth analysis of the NDCs submitted in the first round has shown that member states see climate change as a risk to the well-being of their citizens and to some degree their economies, but never as a risk to social stability, national sovereignty or the functioning of the state. Of the 16 countries that had submitted their updated NDCs to the UNFCCC Secretariat by October 2020, none have framed climate change as a risk to peace and stability.

The idea of climate action should not be to move the climate ambition goalpost to 2050. It is important for countries to fulfil their pre-2020 commitments. Climate action needs to go hand in hand with the framework for financial, technical and capacity-building support to countries that need it.

While climate change does not directly or inherently cause violent conflict, its interaction with other social, political and economic factors can, nonetheless, exacerbate drivers of conflict and fragility and have negative impacts on peace, stability and security. It is for precisely this reason that developing-country NDCs included information on adaptation activities, and the need for finance, technology development and transfer, capacity-building, and transparency. However, while the commitment by developed countries to jointly mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 in support of climate action in developing countries has been central to the climate accords since 2009, the delivery on this commitment has been elusive.

The impacts of climate change and its associated security risks have important gender dimensions. Women and girls experience the interplay between climate change and peace and security in direct and profound ways. Since women are often the providers of food, water and energy for their families they are likely to face increased challenges in accessing resources due to climate change. 

As the primary caregivers, women are often living on the frontlines of climate change and have distinct knowledge and experience to contribute to building effective adaptation strategies. There is an urgent need to promote and support the meaningful participation of women and marginalised groups in national-level climate change policy and planning processes.

India has taken significant steps to fight climate change and we have delivered on our commitments. Our mitigation strategies have emphasised on clean and efficient energy systems; safe, smart and sustainable green mass urban transportation network; planned afforestation; and integrating green thinking across all production and consumption sectors.

India is the only country on track among the G20 nations to meet its climate change mitigation commitments. We are not only meeting our Paris Agreement targets but will also exceed them. India currently has the fastest-growing solar energy programme in the world. We have expanded access to clean cooking fuel to over 80 million households. This is among the largest clean energy drives globally. Our recent commitments of installing 450 GW of renewable energy, elimination of single-use plastic, 100% railway electrification, and creation of an additional carbon sink by restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land among other measures have only added to our climate ambitions.

India strongly believes that the only way to generate persistent, long-term and positive action in the climate change domain is through partnerships by undertaking collective action to make a lasting and sustainable impact. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure (CDRI) are two such initiatives by India that have been launched to address challenges of climate change and adaptation.

There is a significant opportunity for countries to integrate low-carbon development in their COVID-19 rescue and recovery measures and long-term mitigation strategies that are scheduled to be announced for the reconvened COP 26 in 2021.

To better integrate climate change adaptation and peacebuilding we would suggest the building of robust governance structures at the local, national and regional levels to address climate and fragility-related risks. This not only improves public perception of government legitimacy but also shores up capacity of states to address climate risks before they become fragile. Donor countries should provide greater financial, technological and capacity-building assistance to help fragile states to put in place necessary adaptation and mitigation strategies to combat the impact of climate change.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that ‘there is enough for everybody’s need and not for everybody’s greed’. Let us then make the transition to a more climate-friendly lifestyle by adapting to a low-carbon development pathway, based on our needs and not on our greed. 

Let us view climate change as a wakeup call and an opportunity to strengthen multilateralism and seek equitable and inclusive solutions to leave a greener, cleaner and a sustainable world for our future generations.                         

The Chinese statement was made available to TWN in Mandarin and was translated into English by TWN.

*Third World Resurgence No. 347, 2021, pp 18-21