Security Council Mulls 'Climate Peacekeepers'

Is climate change a matter of global security? The UN Security Council thinks it might be, and will hold a special session today to discuss what role, if any, it should have in dealing with it, the Guardian reports. Island nations that stand to be swallowed by rising seas are urging action, with some even calling for green-helmeted peacekeeping troops to enforce global environmental regulations. Nations such as China, meanwhile, think climate isn’t a Security Council issue at all.

The meeting is likely to fall somewhere in the middle—in a “Concept Note” ahead of it, Germany said the council must draft plans for how to deal with climate refugees, or conflicts resulting from food shortages. “It is too early to seriously think about Council action on climate change. This is clearly not on the agenda,” Germany’s ambassador to the UN wrote in this Huffington Post op-ed, though he said the council must ultimately “be at the heart” of any multilateral climate response. (More climate change stories.)