The United Nations’ leading role in tackling the climate emergency | Letter

Prof Abiodun Williams says we must not forget that the international organisation has helped our understanding of the issues facing the environment

There is a curious anomaly in Alice Bell’s otherwise illuminating article on climate change (Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored), 5 July). It makes no reference to the United Nations. Yet the UN has advanced our understanding of climate change through the assessment reports of the intergovernmental panel on climate change created by the UN Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988.

The UN has also facilitated the creation of the climate regime based on three international treaties: the 1992 UN framework convention on climate change, the 1997 Kyoto protocol, and the 2015 Paris agreement.

It is also worth noting that successive secretaries general have warned about the dangers of climate change. In 1997, Kofi Annan said: “The risks of climate change pose the most critical and pervasive environmental threats ever to the security of the human community and to life on Earth as we know it ... On an issue that could have such a decisive effect on the future of humanity, we must act on the principle that precaution now is wiser than panic later.”
Abiodun Williams
Professor of the practice of international politics, the Fletcher school of law and diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, US

Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Letters

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
BBC has a key role in tackling the climate emergency
Letter: Clare Farrell of Extinction Rebellion issues an urgent eight-point call to action for the public broadcaster

Letters

16, Dec, 2018 @5:09 PM

Article image
US must play leading role to save planet | Letter
Letter: Ramp up the noise until the Trump administration hears, writes Carol Steinhart

Letters

09, Oct, 2018 @5:22 PM

Article image
The climate emergency, military emissions and Greta Thunberg | Letters
Letters: Hilary Evans and David Collins shed light on military-related emissions, Catherine Rowett gets behind Greta Thunberg and Prof Joe LaCasce clarifies the difference between global warming and heating

Letters

16, Dec, 2019 @5:53 PM

Article image
Commonwealth can play a key role in tackling climate crisis | Letter
Letter: Cliff Hague on the intergovernmental organisation being a force for change

Letters

15, Sep, 2022 @5:00 PM

Article image
Ethical carbon offsetting has a role to play in tackling the climate crisis | Letters
Letters: Prof Mark Huxham and Mukti Kumar Mitchell on concerns about the viability of carbon offsets in response to an article by George Monbiot. Plus Barbara Foster and MSR Seshu on the climate implications of flights

Letters

31, Jan, 2022 @6:14 PM

Article image
Doctors against climate catastrophe | Letter
Letter: ‘The diagnosis is clear and the treatment urgent. Yet politicians prevaricate and global emissions still rise’

Letters

27, Jun, 2019 @12:31 PM

Article image
UK must provide real climate leadership | Letter
Letter: While the UK talks tough, its agencies have continued to plough public funds into fossil fuels, writes Angela Picciariello

Letters

10, Nov, 2020 @5:30 PM

Article image
Nuclear weapons worsen the climate crisis | Letter
Letter: Suggesting we remove nuclear weapons from the conversation ignores how intertwined these two existential threats are, writes Alicia Sanders-Zakre

Letters

16, Jan, 2020 @5:29 PM

Article image
Overconsumption, not overpopulation, is driving the climate crisis | Letter
Letter: Naomi Delap says blaming deprived women in the global south simply shifts the focus from those most responsible for the climate emergency

Letters

20, Oct, 2022 @4:59 PM

Article image
Population, poverty and the climate emergency | Letters
Letters: Robin Maynard, director of Population Matters, believes the organisation was seriously misrepresented by George Monbiot in an opinion article on the role of population growth as a driver of the climate crisis. Plus letters from Anders Sirén and Martin Earl

Letters

28, Aug, 2020 @3:23 PM