Reforming the United Nations to Save the Planet: The Threat of Global Climate Change Making Reform Inevitable

Year 2017, , 71 - 85, 01.06.2017

Levent Kırval Münir Süner

https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.513229

Abstract

The UN, which is to a great extent the end product of the World War II, and the UN Security Council, its most important organ with five permanent member states responsible for sustaining international system’s security, is highly incapable of solving the global problems that the mankind faces today. The five permanent member states’ veto right about the UN Security Council decisions concerning enforcement decisions and military interventions mostly due to their global interests, decreases the operational power of the UN with regards to protection and formation of peace. In this context, this article will first assess the current status of the UN and its reform attempts, and subsequently, it will analyze the global climate change as a new parameter that started to make the reform of this international organization with evolving supportive international law and enforcement power, highly inevitable. 

Keywords

UN Reform, Global Governance, Paris Agreement, Global Climate Change

Dünya’yı Kurtarmak için Birleşmiş Milletleri Reforme Etmek: Küresel İklim Değişikliği Tehlikesi Reformu Kaçınılmaz Kılıyor

Abstract

II. Dünya Savaşı sonrası uluslararası ilişkiler ortamının bir ürünü olan BM ve onun uluslararası sistemin güvenliğini sağlaması beklenen en kilit organı durumundaki beş daimi üyeye sahip BM Güvenlik Konseyi, günümüz koşullarının ihtiyaçlarını karşılamaktan oldukça uzaktır. Çok önemli uluslararası sorunlarda BM Güvenlik Konseyi’nin beş daimi üyesinin bir ya da daha fazlasının küresel çıkarları çerçevesinde olası yaptırım kararlarını ve askeri müdahaleleri veto etmeleri ile BM’nin barışın tesisi ve korunması yönündeki operasyonel gücü oldukça kısıtlanmaktadır. Bu çerçevede bu makale, BM’nin mevcut durumu ve reform çabalarını inceledikten sonra, bu yapının dönüşümünü ve uluslararası hukuk desteği ile yaptırım gücü olan bir forma dönüşmesini zorunlu hale getirmeye başlayan küresel ısınma ve iklim değişikliği sorunu üzerinde duracaktır. 

Keywords

BM Reformu, Küresel Yönetişim, Paris Antlaşması, Küresel Isınma, İklim Değişikliği

References

• Annan, Kofi. “Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security, and Human Rights for All”, UN document A⁄59⁄2005, 2005.
• Annan, Kofi. “The Quiet Revolution”, Global Governance, Vol.4, No.2, 1998, p.123-138.
• Aust, Anthony. Handbook of International Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Bauman, Zygmunt. In Search of Politics, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999.
• Browne Oli, Anne Hamill and Robert McLeman. “Climate Change as the New Security Threat: Implications for Africa”, International Affairs, Vol.83, No.6, 2007, p.1141-1154.
• Cronin, Bruce and Ian Hurd. The UN Security Council and the Politics of International Authority, London, Routledge, 2008.
• Evans, Malcolm D. International Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Fine, Robert. “Taking the ‘ism’ out of cosmopolitanism”, European Journal of Social Theory, Vol.6, 2003, pp.451-470.
• Forsythe, D. et. al. The United Nations and Changing World Politics, Westview, Boulder, 2010.
• Franda, Marcus. The United Nations in the Twenty First Century, Oxford, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
• Frank, Andre Gunter. The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand?, London, Routledge 1996.
• French, Hilary. “Reshaping Global Governance”, State of the World: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society, Washington DC, 2002, pp.1-265.
• Giddens, Anthony. The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1998.
• Habermas, Jurgen. The Post-National Constellation: Political Essays, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2001.
• Helm, Dieter. “Climate-Change Policy: Why has so little been achieved?”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol.24, No.2, 2008, p.211-238.
• Huang, Jing. “A Leadership of Twenty (L20) Within the UNFCCC: Establishing a Legitimate and Effective Regime to Improve Our Climate System”, Global Governance, Vol.15, No.4, 2009, p.435-441.
• “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” presentation during COP 21, 30 Nov. -12 Dec. 2015, Paris, France. IPCC Website, http://www.ipcc.ch, (Accessed on 26 January 2016).
• Karakaya, Etem and Emrah Sofuoğlu. “İklim Değişikliği Müzakerelerine Bir Bakış: 2015 Paris İklim Zirvesi”, International Symposium on Eurasia Energy Issues, 28-30 May 2015, İzmir, Turkey.
• Klabbers, Jan. An Introduction to International Institutional Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• “Kyoto Protocol Elasticity Mechanisms and Other International Emission Trade Systems Commission Report”, Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry, General Directorate for Environmental Management, Ankara, 2008.
• Metz, Bert and Marcel Kok (eds.). Development Policy as a Way to Manage Climate Change Risks, London, Routledge, 2014.
• Morsink, Johannes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
• Nicholas, Onuf. International Legal Theory: Essays and Engagements, 1966-2006, New York, Routledge, 2008.
• Nyong, Antony and Charles Fiki. “Draught related conflicts, management and resolution in the West African Sahel: Considerations for Climate Change Research”, Die Erde, Vol.137, 2006, p.223-248.
• Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation, New York, Beacon Press, 2001.
• Rosenne, Shabtai. Essays on International Law and Practice, Leiden, Brill, 2007.
• Samsunlu, Ahmet. “Küresel Isınma ve 2015 BM Paris İklim Zirvesi (COP21)”, Su ve Çevre, Vol.90, January 2016.
• Sands, Phillipe, Pierre Klein and Derek W. Bowett. Bowett’s Law of International Institutions, London, Thomson Reuters, 2009.
• Schwartz, Peter and Douglas Randall. An Abrubt Climate Change Scenerio and its Implications for United States and National Security, New York, Environmental Defense, 2003.
• Slaughter, Anne-Marie. “Security, Solidarity, and Sovereignty: The Grand Themes of UN Reform”, American Journal of International Law, Vol.99, No.3, 2005, p.619-631.
• “Text of Kyoto Protocol”, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Website, http://unfccc.int, Accessed on 3.9.2016.
• Turhan, Ethemcan et.al. “Beyond special circumstances: climate change policy in Turkey 1992–2015”, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Vol.7, Issue 3, 2016, pp.448-460.
• Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World System II: Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy 1600-1750, London, Academic Press, 2011.
• Weiss, Thomas G. and Karen E. Young. “Compromise and Credibility: Security Council Reform?”, Security Dialogue, Vol.36, No.2, 2005, p.131-154.
• Weiss, Thomas G. “Fundamental UN Reform: A Non-starter or Not?”, Global Policy, Vol.2, Issue 2, 2011, p.196-202.
• Weiss, Thomas G. “Overcoming the Security Council Impasse: Envisioning Reform”, Occasional Paper 14, Berlin, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2005.
• Weiss, Thomas G. What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It?, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2009.
• Winchester, N. Brian. “Emerging Global Environmental Governance”, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol.16, No.1, 2009, p.7-23. World Development Indicators, “CO2 Emissions (KT)”. (http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&type=metadata&series=EN.ATM.CO2E.KT, (Accessed on 03 April 2016).
• “5th Evaluation Report”, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2014. IPCC Website, http://www.ipcc.ch, (Accessed on 26 January 2016).