Beckett, who spent five years as Britain's negotiator on climate change, said she understood the reservations.

"I'm the last person to want to undermine the important work that those bodies do," she said, "but this is an issue that threatens the peace and security of the whole planet, and the Security Council has to be the right place to debate it, and clearly if 52 countries wish to speak, that isn't just a view held by the United Kingdom."

By the time the daylong meeting ended early Tuesday evening, a total of 55 countries spoke, including three late additions. The council did not adopt a statement or resolution.

Beckett said Britain was following the precedent of the first Security Council debate on another important global issue - HIV/ AIDS in 2000. "We want to see the same thing happen with climate change, that it comes from the fringes into the mainstream," she said.

Over the past few years, she said, the threat from climate change has grown and its impact goes far beyond the environment "to the very heart of the security agenda."

She cited flooding, disease and famine leading to unprecedented migration; drought and crop failure intensifying competition for food, water and energy; and the potential for economic disruption on a scale not seen since World War II.

On Monday, Beckett noted, top US retired admirals and generals warned in a new report that climate change is a "threat multiplier for instability." She said Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, whose economy depends on hydropower from a reservoir that is already depleted by drought, has called climate change "an act of aggression by the rich against the poor."

"He is one of the first leaders to see this problem in security terms," Beckett said. "He will not be the last."

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