India on Monday did not approve a draft resolution by the United Nations Security Council on climate change, saying it was an attempt to undermine the pact reached last month at COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
India also said that the Security Council was not a platform to discuss climate change.
Apart from India, China and Russia also opposed the draft resolution created by Security Council members Ireland and Niger to discuss how climate change could threaten international peace and security. It received approval from 12 of the 15 members of the council.
“Today’s UNSC Resolution attempts to undermine the hard-won consensus which we reached in Glasgow,” said TS Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations. “This resolution would only sow the seeds of discord among the larger UN membership.”
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, had in November recognised India’s intervention to “phase down” rather than “phase out” use of coal as a fuel. This came a day after India had proposed this change in the agreement of the Glasgow Climate Pact, which was signed by 200 countries.
The move to water down the Glasgow climate pact was criticised by several countries. India, which was backed by China, had defended its stance, saying that developing countries could not focus on phasing out coal.
On Monday, Tirumurti said that the draft resolution adopted in the United Nations Security Council sent a wrong message to the developing countries.
“Instead of addressing their concerns and holding developed countries responsible for meeting their commitments under the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change], we are willing to be divided and side-tracked under the guise of security,” he said.
The UN ambassador added that several of the main members of the United Nations Security Council had largely contributed to climate change.
“If the Security Council indeed takes over the responsibility on this issue, a few states will then have a free hand in deciding on all climate-related issues,” he said. “This is neither desirable nor acceptable.”
The way forward, Tirumuti said, is to expedite climate finance by the developed countries, which have not yet met their pledge of contributing $100 billion to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
“This is particularly important to recognise because today’s attempt to link climate with security seeks to obfuscate lack of progress on critical issues under the UNFCCC process,” said Tirumurti.
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