Climate change affects "collective security in a fragile and increasingly interdependent world", according to UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. "Climate change can bring us together if we have the wisdom to prevent it from driving us apart," she said.
Many developing countries held reservations, however, seeing climate change as a socio-economic development issue to be dealt with by the more widely representative UN General Assembly. Other delegations called for the United Nations to urgently consider convening a global summit on the issue.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that projected climate changes could not only have serious environmental, social and economic implications, but also implications for peace and security. "This is especially true in vulnerable regions that face multiple stresses at the same time - pre-existing conflict, poverty and unequal access to resources, weak institutions, food insecurity and incidence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS," he added. Scenarios such as limited or threatened access to energy increased the risk of conflict, while a scarcity of food and water could transform peaceful competition into violence, and floods and droughts could spark massive human migrations, polarizing societies and weakening the ability of countries to resolve conflicts peacefully, he said.