The UN Security Council will discuss climate change on April 17 for the first time, following a British initiative to include it in the council's agenda. Britain's UN ambassador emphasized the potential for climate change to worsen traditional conflict triggers. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett will lead the debate, underscoring the importance of the topic to global security. Other countries have been invited to send their foreign ministers to participate in the discussion. In March, Britain announced its plan to bring climate change to the attention of the Security Council, but this required approval from the council's 15 members, including the five permanent members with veto power. China and Russia, two of the permanent members, showed resistance to holding the debate according to diplomatic sources. The United States, which has not followed the Kyoto Protocol, did not oppose the discussion. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair and Beckett, a former secretary of state for environment, Britain has been actively advocating for urgent action against global warming in various international forums. The European Union recently agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020. Britain has circulated a concept paper suggesting that climate change could lead to conflicts, border changes, energy supply disruptions, and mass migrations, anticipating that some UN member states may argue that the issue should be addressed by the General Assembly or environmental agencies. The text discusses six potential ways in which climate change may impact global security, including border disputes, migration, energy supplies, resource shortages, societal stress, and humanitarian crises. It suggests that melting ice and rising sea levels could potentially reshape the world's landmass, leading to changes in political and maritime borders, as well as mass migration. Estimates indicate that as many as 200 million people could be displaced by the middle of the century.