Climate Change in the UN Security Council: An Analysis of Discourses and Organizational Trends

Abstract

The UN Security Council has published about eighty-three thousand documents between 2001 and 2021. This study analyzes this large corpus of text to identify, map, and trace the evolution of discourses on climate change and their impact on the organization. The article analyzes diplomatic speeches and other primary sources to identify instances of climatization of security and securitization, riskification, and mainstreaming of climate change. To fulfill its aim, the article introduces a mixed method that combines an automated content analysis with a discourse analytic approach. The findings suggest that, despite the stall in high-level discussions on climate security, the Security Council is de facto moving toward a climatization of security and riskification of climate change in daily practices, procedures, and operations.