2021年9月23日
联合国总部
纽约州纽约市
 
布林肯国务卿：非常感谢你，爱尔兰总理（Taoiseach）。古特雷斯秘书长（Secretary-General Guterres），感谢你的出席，感谢你在气候问题上的领导作用。总理先生，非常感谢你召集今天的讨论，在安理会（Security Council）议程上将气候与安全联系起来。还要感谢你，和我们来自尼日尔的同仁一起从事爱尔兰和尼日尔正在气候与安全非正式专家小组（Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security）展开的重要工作。我还要称赞埃尔曼（Elman）女士非常有力的证词。我们很感激今天能听到。
从第一天开始，拜登总统就将解决气候危机作为本届政府的一项首要重点，包括指示我——以及我们每一位外交人员——确保它是美国对外政策的一个核心要素。我们正在考量我们所进行的每一次双边及多边接触——我们所做出的每一项政策决定——将如何影响我们让世界走上一条更安全、更可持续的道路的目标。
这不仅是因为气候变化给我们的绚丽星球造成的惨重的——在某些情况下不可逆转的——影响。这也是因为对于我们生活的几乎每个方面的连带效应，从农业到基础设施，从公共健康到粮食安全。我们已经听到有关其中一些问题的描述。
本月早些时候，就在我们今天集会的纽约市，飓风艾达（Hurricane Ida）的余威所引发的严重风暴造成数十人死亡，其中包括一名两岁的小男孩，并造成了数百亿美元的损失。中央公园（Central Park）在一个小时内的降雨量超过了3英寸，打破了短短几周前才创下的纪录。
环顾我们任何一个国家，你们都能看到类似的破纪录的极端天气事件。气候危机不是即将到来，而是已经来临。
它的影响正在显现出清晰的模式。其后果不成比例地影响着脆弱的、低收入人口。而且，在已经深受冲突、严重暴力和不稳定的地区，它们使状况更加恶化，人们的苦难进一步加深。
这些不断加剧的影响——还有上周发布的综合报告以及上个月发布的政府间气候变化专门委员会（Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change）的全面报告——凸显了大幅削减我们的排放量以及针对将到来的不可避免的变化建设我们的抗御力的迫切需求。
这样做的方式之一是帮助其他人尽他们的一份力。4月份，拜登总统宣布美国将把我们对受气候危机影响最严重的发展中国家的公共国际融资翻倍。本周早些时候，就在联合国，他宣布我们将同美国国会一起努力把这个数字再翻一倍。我们敦促其他政府也进一步做出这些投资——特别是那些像美国一样的最大排放国家。
安理会也具有非常重要的作用——我想简要地提到三个方面。
首先，我们必须停止对于气候危机是否属于安理会范畴的争论，而是要问安理会能够如何运用它独特的力量来应对气候给和平安全带来的不良影响。上述争论早已应该停止。
环视今天几乎所有地方见到的对国际和平与安全的威胁——你会发现气候变化正在造成更多的不太平，更多的不安全，给我们的应对努力带来更大的挑战。这种情况出现在叙利亚、马里、也门、南苏丹、埃塞俄比亚，以及其他许多陷入冲突纠纷的地方。通过一致表明这个问题属于安理会，我们将向国际社会发出一个明确信息，即气候变化对我们的共同安全产生严重影响。
第二，联合国在实地使命中，应该一致把气候变化的效应纳入其计划和实施工作中，就像我们对联合国伊拉克援助团（UN Assistance Missions for Iraq）、联合国马里多层面综合稳定团（UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali），以及联合国西非和萨赫勒办事处（UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel）等使命作出授权一样。这样做将推进使命的工作；它将促进稳定；它将建设抗御能力。
第三，联合国系统应该进一步把与气候有关的分析纳入调解冲突和预防冲突的努力中，尤其是在脆弱的国家和冲突活跃的地区。联合国政治和建设和平事务部（UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs）2020年首次将气候安全纳入战略计划的决定以及气候安全机制（Climate Security Mechanism），都正是有非常积极意义的例子。
对任何对这些举措的功效持怀疑态度的人，我鼓励你们只需去问问联合国部队的指挥官，特使，谈判人员，从事和平建设的人，以及其他在实地每天工作中都要对付气候影响地人。他们渴望有更多这样的手段。
我今天集中谈的是气候危机带来的威胁。但是，让我在结束前说，如果仅从这一个角度看待它会是一个错误。
我们一致认为，为预防灾难性的后果，所有国家都必须采取立即的和大胆的行动，建设抗御能力，针对不可避免的影响作出调整，迅速朝净零排放的世界前进。这是我们对即将在几个星期后召开联合国气候变化大会（COP26）的共同责任。如果我们要使将地球升温幅度限于1.5摄氏度的目标得到实现，每一个国家都需要把自己尽可能最远大的雄心带到桌前。
但是，这些努力——以及它们需要我们大家给予的投资——也展现出前所有未的机会，可以让更多人用上支付得起的清洁能源；建造绿色基础设施；创造高薪工作——所有这些都可以刺激长期经济发展，扭转我们国内和国与国之间不断加大的不平等，给全球各地人的生活带来改善。
因此，虽然我们对威胁有清醒的认识，但是，让我们不要忽视这种一代才出现一次的全球机会。让驱动我们的不仅是对气候危机可能产生——而且已经产生——的各种破坏的恐惧，而且是对通过作出回应，实际上可以用各种方式给现在和未来创造更美好生活的憧憬。
非常感谢各位。
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REMARKS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
UN HEADQUARTERS
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you very much, Taoiseach.  Secretary-General Guterres, thank you for your presence, thank you for your leadership on climate.  And Taoiseach, thank you so much for convening today’s discussion, for putting the connection between climate and security on the Security Council’s agenda.  And thank you as well, together with our colleagues from Niger, for the important work that Ireland and Niger are doing with the Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security.  I also want to applaud Ms. Elman’s very powerful testimony.  We’re grateful to have it today.
From day one, President Biden has made addressing the climate crisis a top priority of our administration, including by directing me – and every one of our diplomats – to ensure it’s a core element of U.S. foreign policy.  We’re taking into account how every bilateral and multilateral engagement we have – every policy decision we make – will impact our goal of putting the world on a safer, more sustainable path.
That’s not only because of the devastating – and in some instances, irreversible – implications of climate change for our majestic planet.  It’s also because of the cascading effects on virtually every aspect of our lives, from agriculture to infrastructure, from public health to food security.  And we’ve heard some of those described already.
Right here in New York City where we’re gathered today, earlier this month, a punishing storm caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed dozens of people, including a two-year-old boy, and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage.  More than three inches of rain fell in Central Park in a single hour, breaking a record set only a few weeks earlier.
Look at any one of our countries, you will see record-breaking extreme weather events like this.  The climate crisis isn’t coming.  It’s already here.
And clear patterns are emerging in its impact.  The consequences are falling disproportionately on vulnerable and low-income populations.  And they’re worsening conditions and human suffering in places already afflicted by conflict, high levels of violence, instability.
These mounting impacts – together with the synthesis report released last week and the comprehensive report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released last month – underscore the urgent need to dramatically cut our emissions and build our resilience for the inevitable changes to come.
One way to do that is by helping others to do their part.  Back in April, President Biden announced that the United States would double our public international financing for developing countries most impacted by the climate crisis.  Earlier this week, here at the United Nations, he announced that we will work with the U.S. Congress to double that number again.  We urge other governments to step up in making these investments – particularly those, like the United States, that are the biggest emitters.
The Security Council also has a vital role to play – in three ways that I’d like to briefly suggest.
First, we have to stop debating whether the climate crisis belongs in the Security Council and instead ask how the Council can leverage its unique powers to tackle the negative impacts of climate on peace and security.  That’s an argument that should have been settled a long time ago.
Look at almost every place where you see threats to international peace and security today – and you’ll find that climate change is making things less peaceful, less secure, and rendering our response even more challenging.  That’s the story of Syria, Mali, Yemen, South Sudan, Ethiopia, many other places beset by strife.  By agreeing that the issue belongs here in the Security Council, we’ll also send a clear message to the international community of the serious implications that climate change has for our collective security.
Second, UN field missions should consistently incorporate the effects of climate change into their planning and implementation, as was done in the mandates for the UN Assistance Missions for Iraq, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, and the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, among others.  Doing that will advance mission activities; it will foster stability; it will build resilience.
Third, the UN system should further integrate climate-related analysis into its conflict mediation and conflict prevention efforts, particularly in fragile states and areas of active conflict.  The UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs decision to include climate security in its Strategic Plan for the first time in 2020 and the Climate Security Mechanism are very positive examples of just this.
To any who doubt the merits of these steps, I’d just encourage you to just ask some of the UN force commanders, the special envoys, the negotiators, the peacebuilders, others who are out there grappling with the impacts of climate in their everyday efforts.  They are hungry for more tools like these.
I’ve focused today on the threats posed by the climate crisis.  But let me just say in closing, it would be a mistake to view this only through that lens.
We agree that to prevent cataclysmic consequences, all our nations must take immediate, bold actions to build resilience, to adapt to the unavoidable impacts, and move swiftly to a net-zero world.  That is our shared charge for COP26, which is now only weeks away.  And if we’re to keep within reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, every nation will need to bring their highest possible ambitions to the table.
But these efforts – and the investments they will require from all of us – also present an unprecedented opportunity to expand access to affordable, clean energy; to build green infrastructure; to create good-paying jobs – all of which could be the spur to long-term economic growth, reverse growing inequities within and between our nations, improve the lives of people around the world.
So even as we are clear-eyed about the threat, let’s not lose sight of this once-in-a-generation global opportunity.  Let’s be driven not only by the fear of all the damage the climate crisis can inflict – and already has inflicted – but also by the imagination of all the ways our response can actually make people’s lives better, now and into the future.
Thank you very much.