India voted against a UN Security Council draft resolution on climate actions on Monday, arguing that it was an attempt to wrest decision-making away from most developing countries and hand it over to the outfit.
India, opposing the draft resolution co-authored by Ireland and Niger, said the UN’s member states had established over nearly three decades an elaborate and equitable architecture to address every aspect of climate change through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“Climate change decisions are sought to be taken out of the wider international community represented in the UNFCCC and given instead to the Security Council,” T.S. Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the UN, said in explanatory remarks on India’s vote.
He said there was no real requirement for the resolution except for the purpose of bringing climate change under the ambit of the Security Council. “And the reason for that is now decisions can then be taken without involvement of most developing countries and without recognising consensus,” Tirumurti said. “And all this can be done in the name of preserving international peace and security.”
Ironically, Tirumurti said, many of the Security Council members are the main contributors of climate change due to their historical emissions. “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.”
He said the draft resolution would only sow seeds of discord among the large UN membership and represents a step backward from the world’s collective resolve to combat climate change through the UNFCCC process.
Tirumurti said the attempt to place climate actions under the ambit of the Security Council appeared motivated by a desire to evade responsibility and divert the world’s attention from an unwillingness to deliver where it counts.
He said the attempt to link climate with security “seeks to obfuscate lack of progress on critical issues under the UNFCCC process.”
Under climate pacts signed through the UNFCCC process, for instance, developed countries had pledged to provide financial support and technologies to developing countries to help them lower emissions and address other climate change issues.
“Developed countries must provide climate finance of (US) $ one trillion at the earliest,” Tirumurti said, referring to a long-standing demand from the developing countries. “It is necessary that climate finance be tracked with the same diligence as climate mitigation.”
He said India is “second to none” on climate actions and cited the country’s new pledges announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the climate summit in Glasgow in November.
India has committed to increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW, meet 50 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, reduce carbon intensity of the economy by 45 per cent, and reduce carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.