Russia vetoes UN resolution highlighting climate change as security threat

Russia on Monday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have classified climate change as a threat to international peace and security.

The vote crushed a longtime effort to make global warming a more prominent issue within the U.N. body, according to The Associated Press.

Some 113 of the U.N.’s 193 member countries supported the resolution, including 12 of the 15 members of the council, the AP reported. 

The resolution had said that climate issues could present “a key risk to global peace, security and stability.” 

The proposal was led by Ireland and Niger and called for “incorporating information on the security implications of climate change” into plans regarding conflicts, peacekeeping efforts and political decisions in addition to making climate-related security risks  “a central component” in preventing conflict.

“It’s long overdue,” Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason said, per the AP.

But Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the plan “ticking time bomb.”  

He added that the proposal would turn “a scientific and economic issue into a politicized question” and take attention away from “genuine” conflicts, according to the AP.

The decision follows last month’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which ended in a pact to strengthen 2030 climate goals before the end of next year and cut global carbon dioxide emissions by 45 percent by 2030 in comparison to levels seen in 2010.