The Kremlin found the document on climate proposed for approval by the UN Security Council unacceptable. At the same time, the struggle against climate change is a priority for Russia.
Russia vetoed a draft UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on climate because the document was "completely unacceptable."
"The climate agenda can not be a factor that holds back or restricts development,” explained Dmitry Peskov, Putin's official spokesman said.
Peskov noted that the climate agenda was "extremely important" and serves as a priority for Russia's policy.
"The resolution was completely unacceptable. Not only Russia, but also a number of other countries supported us,” said Peskov.
Russia vetoed the draft resolution on climate on December 13. Russian Ambassador to the UN explained this decision with a one-sided approach to looking at conflicts and security threats through the prism of the climate change. Such a draft resolution was unacceptable for Russia, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said.
The United States later declared that Russia "let the world down” by disagreeing with the provisions of the resolution.
"Only the [Security Council] can ensure the security impacts of climate change are integrated into the critical work of conflict prevention and mitigation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian response," the U. S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, wrote on Twitter. "Russia let the world down by vetoing a resolution backed by a majority of UN member states," she said.
The draft resolution was developed by Ireland and Niger, and 113 countries acted as co-authors. The document suggested taking into account the impact of climate change on security when conducting peacekeeping operations and organizing UN political missions. As many as 113 out of 193 member countries of the organization, including 12 out of 15 members of the UN Security Council, supported the draft resolution. Among UN Security Council, it was only Russia and India that voted against; China abstained.
After the vote, the Russian mission to the UN explained its position by the fact that the draft resolution ignored "all other aspects of situations, in which countries find themselves in conflicts or lagging behind in socio-economic development."
Russian diplomats said that the authors of the document wanted to create new leverage through which one could dictate their vision in fulfilling the climate agenda and be able to include the situation in any country on the agenda of the UN Security Council, explaining this by the need to combat climate change.
The Russian mission to the UN confirmed that Moscow supported the need for further search for solutions to climate issues and recognizes the existence of complex problems in this area.