UN Security Council High-Level Open Debate on 

Maintenance of international peace and security:

Humanitarian Effects of Environmental Degradation

and Peace and Security

INDIA STATEMENT

17 September 2020

We thank the organizers for convening today’s discussion  on  “Humanitarian Effects of Environmental Degradation and Peace and Security”.

2. Environmental degradation affects not just the ecosystem but also the people who depend and live on it.  It is also a multi-dimensional issue. To begin with, it can be caused by those who live on it due to a range of inter-related factors, foremost amongst which is poverty and not necessarily greed. In many developing countries, such problems arise from issues related to people living at subsistence level. The question then is: Do we want to treat poverty and subsistence agriculture as peace and security issues?

3. In many other  cases,  the  perpetrators  of  environmental  degradation may well be outside  national  boundaries  while  the  people  suffering are inside. Is peace and security then the right paradigm to address this issue or is strengthening implementation of agreements, an appropriate and probably a more effective way to do it? 

4. Environmental degradation can have humanitarian impact or effect just as many other aspects of human activity have humanitarian dimensions. However, merely to link up everything related to environmental issues with peace and security does nothing to enhance our understanding of the problem; does nothing to help us address these issues in a meaningful way; and does nothing to call out the real perpetrators and make them adhere to their commitments on environmental issues or help change behaviour of people at subsistence level.  

5. There has been an increasing tendency both in the Security Council and outside to start discussing environmental issues with a certain disregard for the various important principles which govern environmental discussions, including climate change and biological diversity. Principles such as Common But Differentiated Responsibilities are sacrosanct in this matter. Steering away from these principles and other commitments and attempting to discuss such issues by obfuscating those responsible for addressing them will only do disservice to the real issue rather than make it more meaningful to address them. 

6. Consequently, linking up environmental degradation to humanitarian effect and then to peace and security does not enhance our collective effort to address environmental degradation in any meaningful way. What we need is a collective will to address such important issues multi-dimensionally without shirking our respective commitments under the various important conventions, inter alia, UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris Agreement etc. 

7. What we need therefore is greater resolve to implement the commitments and contributions undertaken under environmental agreements instead of “securitisation” of environmental issues. 

8. There is also need for greater sensitivity in connection with the energy mix of various countries many of which are not of their choosing. One should resist the temptation of painting all countries with varied energy mix with the same brush. The touchstone should be whether respective commitments are being adhered to and not demonizing one particular energy source and calling for action without allowing for organic energy transitions which require huge financial commitments.  

9. It may be equally relevant to ask whether there is enough evidence to suggest that there is a link between environmental degradation to peace and security. Chapter 4 of 2019 IPCC Special Report on “Climate Change and Land” says  “Land degradation may trigger competition for scarce natural resources, potentially leading to migration and/or conflict, though, even with medium evidence, there is low agreement in the literature.” Thus, even the best science available to us does not indicate that environmental degradation is a threat to peace and security.

10. India is a leading contributor to “climate action”. Over the past few years, we have reduced 38 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.  In the course of the last decade, around 3 million hectares of forest and tree cover has been added, which has enhanced the combined forest and tree cover to 24.56% of the total geographical area of the country. Going forward, India aims to restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land and achieve land-degradation neutrality by 2030.We have set additional targets of eliminating single-use plastic by 2022 and installing 450GW of renewable energy by 2030.

11. India has taken leadership role in order to protect environment. We have organized the CoP 13 of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals and the CoP-14 of UN Convention to Combat Desertification in 2020 and 2019 respectively. 

12. Going forward, each of us including the private sector, the civil society and the government can make more climate-friendly lifestyle choices to ease the transition to a sustainable lifestyle. 

13. Let us view environmental degradation as an opportunity to strengthen multilateralism and seek equitable and inclusive solutions to build a greener, cleaner and a sustainable world.

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