RMI To UN,
Climate Change Is ‘Security Issue’
Minister deBrum
hopes appeal to Security Council is convincing
MAJURO,
Marshall Islands (Yokwe, Feb. 15, 2013) – The Security Council should consider
climate change as a threat to international peace and security, particularly
for such low-lying nations as the Marshall Islands whose "very
existence" was at risk, a Government minister from that country said at a
Headquarters press conference today. "This organization [the Council] that
we put faith in to provide the security of our country is saying that that is
not a security matter," said Tony deBrum, Minister in Assistance to the
President of the Marshall Islands, as he briefed journalists on today’s
so-called "Arria Formula" meeting on security implications of climate
change.
Initiated in
1992 by Ambassador Diego Arria, the representative of Venezuela on the Security
Council, such informal gatherings do not constitute an activity of the Council
and are convened at the initiative of a member or members of the Council.
Mr. deBrum said
he had participated as a panelist and reminded the Council that 35 years ago,
he had come to the United Nations to petition for the independence of the
Marshall Islands. Between 1976 and 1986, his delegation had annually visited
the United Nations. In 1986, the Security Council finally approved the
termination of the trusteeship and the establishment of an independent
Government for the Marshall Islands, he added.
"We are
very grateful for that, but it is hard to be excited about the independent
Government seeking prosperity, progress and good life for its people to be
faced with the situation where its very existence is threatened through climate
change," he said.
"It seems
ironic that the very same agency whose approval was needed for my country to
become a country again would consider my coming back to ask for help […] is not
relevant to their work," he said. There was no outcome document or a
running record from that meeting, but he expected that his appeal had convinced
some or more of the participants that climate change "is in fact a
security issue, not just an economic/social/political issue".
When asked
which countries opposed treating climate change as the Council’s prerogative,
he said China, Russian Federation and Guatemala were among them.
"Surprisingly", the "Group of 77" developing countries and
China, of which the Marshall Islands was a member, had taken a position that
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was the
appropriate venue for deliberations on that issue. That revealed that
"many of our own friends throughout the world do not realize the urgency
of the problem," he said.
Describing the
situation, he said rising tides had started severely impacting the islands,
with roads inundated every 14 days in keeping with the moon cycle. In southern
parts of the nation, where there used to be a military base in the Second World
War, ordnances were being exposed by the tides, presenting a clear danger to
the life and welfare of people there. Even the nation’s capital was required to
ration water. In the northern part, emergency kits for making drinking water
were being distributed as well water was inundated with salt.
"It became
unsuitable for human consumption, and dangerous even to our staple food and
citrus," he said. He said he was not predicting a looming crisis — it was
already happening, affecting not just his own country but also Kiribati, Tuvalu
and some of the other low-lying islands of the Pacific. He hoped that
"logic will prevail and people see it as a just cause".
In September,
there will be a Pacific Islands Forum meeting to be held in his country, he
said. He wished to invite the most significant players in the politics of
climate change to visit the Marshall Islands to see the situation first hand.
"We are not just sitting under coconut trees and waiting for coconuts to
fall," he said, stressing the need for proactive measures.
To an inquiry
about Palau’s bid to bring the climate change issue before the International
Court of Justice as a security and human rights violation, he said it was an
interesting effort, but was not moving anywhere.
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