The nexus between Climate Change and Security is an established theme on the international agenda, with a strong scientific basis that security implications of climate change will continue to exacerbate long-existing vulnerabilities as well as to contribute to emerging risks. However, the nexus is missing a piece from the discussion – the Ocean.
One of the many issues demanding urgent attention is the security implications that climate change has on the ocean, the single largest habitat on our planet. The ‘threat multiplier’ effect is reflected in severe and frequent weather phenomena, sea level rise, food insecurity, and socio-economic tensions.
As current Co-Chair of the UN Steering Committee on Partnerships for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Malta is also committed to ensuring that the voices of those States mostly affected by the impacts of climate change on their seas and oceans are heard.
The Group of Friends on Climate and Security brings together delegations from all regions who share the conviction that climate change is among the key challenges for the international community in the 21st century. Its 58 members are concerned about the effects of climate change on peace and security and are working with all relevant UN entities to strengthen political momentum.
It is for this reason that H.E. Vanessa Frazier, Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, together with the Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends on Climate & Security - H.E. Christoph Heusgen, Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations and H.E. Margo Dieye, Permanent Representative of Nauru to the United Nations, hosted an event on Wednesday 2 June entitled ‘Climate Change & the Ocean - Bridging the Gap from Science to Global Security Concerns’, in the run up to World Ocean Day (commemorated each year on 8 June).
Prof. Simone Borg, Maltese Ambassador for Climate Change and Prof. Alan Deidun, Maltese Ambassador for Ocean Governance, were panellists during the same virtual event, which also featured interventions by UN Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson, Executive Secretary of UNESCO-IOC Dr Vladimir Ryabinin as well as by IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Dr Valerie Masson-Delmotte.
Prof. Borg stressed that the most strident message for the international community remains the need to take concrete action to prevent threats to international peace and security from climate inaction, with an urgent need to identify the cost of inaction within the political arena to prevent severe climate effects that science is predicting will materialise.
Prof. Deidun noted that, if the ocean were to be considered a distinct national economy by virtue of the many ecosystem services it provides, then it would easily make it into the G7 through its sheer economic value, further underscoring the need to safeguard such a life-support and climate-buffering system so as to sustain the long-term provision of goods and services we extract from the ocean.
