A chorus of protests met Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, as she chaired the UN Security Council’s first debate on climate change yesterday.

China, Russia and some leading developing nations said that Britain was overstepping the council’s remit.

Mrs Beckett argued that climate change posed a threat to world peace that made it a proper subject for the 15-nation Security Council. “Our responsibility in this council is to maintain international peace and security, including the prevention of conflict. An unstable climate will exacerbate some of the core drivers of conflict such as migratory pressures and competition for resources,” she said.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, came to her support, saying that the Security Council ought to address “the possible root causes of conflict”.

“Scarce resources, especially water and food, could help transform peaceful competition into violence,” he said. “Limited or threatened access to energy is already known to be a powerful driver of conflict. Our changing planet risks making it more so.”

China complained that the Security Council was overstepping its bounds under Britain’s month-long presidency. “The developing countries believe that neither has the Security Council the professional competence in handling climate change nor is it the right decision-making place for extensive participation leading up to widely acceptable proposals,” Liu Zhenmin, China’s representative, said.

Vitali Churkin, Russia’s often-blunt UN Ambassador, advised Mrs Beckett to “avoid panicking and over-dramatising the situation”.

“With regard to the UN Security Council, it should deal with consideration of questions that relate directly to its mandate,” he said.

The Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned Movement, representing developing nations, wrote letters, signed by Pakistan and Cuba respectively, that accused the Security Council of encroaching on the jurisdiction of other UN bodies, particularly the 192-member General Assembly.

Small island states broke with other developing nations to emphasise the danger that they faced from global warming. Robert Aisi, the Papua New Guinea Ambassador, said: “People may have to abandon . . . their homes and the possibility of their nations.”

Britain pushed hard to get climate change on to the Security Council agenda in an effort inspired in part by the US initiative to hold an unprecedented council debate on Aids in 2000.

Officials succeeded, however, only by resorting to a procedural device that described the debate simply as a discussion of a British letter on “energy, security and climate”. The United States, often criticised for its failure to sign the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions, was initially reluctant but relented after a personal appeal by Mrs Beckett, diplomats said.

Italy and Slovakia were the only other Security Council members apart from Britain to send a minister to take part in the debate.

Britain got firm backing from the EU, however, in a speech delivered by the visiting German Development Minister, Heidemarie Wieszorek-Zeul. Germany is not a Security Council member. “This council usually deals with more imminent threats to international peace and security than those caused by climate change,” she said. “However, less obvious and more distant drivers of conflict should not be ignored.”

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