ABSTRACT
To ask whether the United Nations Security Council should take up climate and energy insecurity seems, on initial inspection, an almost pointless question. As other authors in this book have demonstrated, climate change and energy concerns present a major new security policy challenge. Climate change may be the most daunting problem of the century, posing a risk to international security and world peace. With a mandate to maintain international peace and security (Article 34 of the UN Charter)1, it would seem only logical that the Security Council should play a significant role in addressing this challenge. Instead of asking why the UN Security Council should be involved in climate and energy concerns, it seems more reasonable to ask: why should it not? If this isn’t an issue for the UN’s most powerful body, what is? What other group could hope to tackle this global threat?
