Climate and Security in Africa: Statement During High-Level Open Debate

Thank you Mr. President,

I also thank Assistant Secretary General, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Mr. Tanguy Gahouma, Former Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change and Mr. Patrick Youssef, ICRC Regional Director for their briefings.

Mr. President,

Last August, the Secretary General, responding to a just-released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, called it a "code red for humanity". Unfortunately, the expected sense of alarm among world leaders was muted. In November, at COP-26 in Glasgow, industrialised countries mostly waxed lyrical in front of cameras and then limited action during negotiations. The result was a limp outcome, and a head-in-the-sand kicking of the can down the road.

In December, a resolution on climate and security was proposed to the Security Council. Despite earning sufficient votes, and strong support by member states, it was vetoed by a Permanent Member.

In the year since, the response to what is still named climate change, but that billions experience as a climate crisis, has only worsened. The energy supply gaps in Europe resulting from the war in Ukraine have led to a mass return to its exploitation of fossil fuels.

These are the fossil fuels that many European and Western governments insisted not be developed in Africa during negotiations in Glasgow. Despite the fact that they are still the heaviest consumers, and are responsible for the overwhelming amount of greenhouse emissions. To make the double standard even more glaring, Africa suffers from tremendous deficits in energy, which is a major factor in its disproportionate poverty and under-development. Even the fact that closing the energy deficit for Africa, and its rapid development, is key to its climate change adaptation was resisted in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, the climate crisis is manifesting more destructively in our daily lives. For every heatwave in a wealthy city, there are biblical floods elsewhere. And multi-year droughts in regions such as the Horn of Africa that are leading to extreme food insecurity and the reversal of years of development gains.

This sad litany of short-sighted manoeuvring, resistance to responsibility, and double standards is where we find ourselves today. It is important that we establish our precise situation to better debate where we go from here.

Mr President,

It should now be clear that the key institutions in global governance are not fit for purpose in advancing peace, climate justice, pandemic responses and inclusion. They respond to the crises of the richest and most powerful while standing on the sidelines for the rest.

From the response to COVID-19, to climate emergencies, and even combatting Al Qaeda terrorist groups in Africa, the shortcomings are glaring. They are deadly. They sap hope in institutions and in the future that they can promise.

To repeat our old arguments is to expect that they were not heard or that they have been forgotten. But they have not. The bulk of the publics and experts all over the world, and especially in the industrialised countries, are calling for bold action.

We must therefore return to the insistence that without reforms in the global system, humanity's wellbeing and international peace and security will be perilous.

Mr President,

For the sake of today's debate, and despite the failings of the past, it is important that we offer a way forward. We have four recommendations to make.

First is that charter-level reforms of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions and the G20 are overdue. Responding to this demand by labeling it wishful thinking is tantamount to announcing the system's irrelevance. It invites, almost inevitably, the emergence of parallel, and probably conflicting, geopolitical orders. Let us bring balance in permanent membership in the Security Council. Not only the addition of great powers but of states that can best represent the voice of the most climate-change affected and developing countries. Let us have prompt action by the IMF-administered Resilience and Sustainability Trust in equitably reallocating the $650 Billion in SDRs for global public policy, and in particular climate adaptation. Let us see the African Union with a permanent G20 seat.

Second is to remove the barriers to a high-energy future for all countries, particularly those in Africa. Industry, commerce, jobs and inclusive growth are powered by energy. Not having them consigns billions to grinding poverty, heightened security threats, and unstable political lives. The transition from a low-energy to a high-energy country must be as green as possible, and be aided by adequate technology-transfers and investment. Kenya has committed to a 100% clean energy by 2030. We are at 90% today but the investment to get to a 100% — as we rapidly grow our manufacturing sector and industrialise — is urgently required. Climate change mitigation and adaptation cannot be on the backs of the poorest, and we hope that such views will not be brought forward at the negotiating table next month at COP-27.

Third is that we need immediate action on the ground. The link between extreme-weather events — the majority caused by climate change — and major conflicts within the purview of the Council is undeniable. It is equally clear that climate change adaptation is the most peace-positive undertaking in regions such as the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. It is critical that investments be surged into these regions for the sake of sustained peace and security.

Fourth, and finally, the Security Council cannot remain on the sidelines when major threats to regional and international peace and security are made worse by climate crises. Last December we suffered the reversal by veto. We must respond to that attempt not by retreating, but by delivering a resolution that leads to pragmatic actions that impact the day-to-day security of communities in conflict-areas within the purview of the Council. A resolution can advance the need for peacekeeping missions to have tactical, operational and strategic environmental planning based on meeting mandate objectives and desired end-states. It can encourage the consideration of environmental initiatives in improving community-mission relations, preserving and protecting critical infrastructure, and the impact on mission transition and longer-term reconstruction.

Mr President, we know what needs doing. It is now for those with the urgency, the responsibility, and, most importantly, the vision to do so. Kenya will walk with all states and institutions that are ready to act.

Thank you.