The first UNITAR International Research Conference will take place in Bonn (Germany), hosted at the UN Campus, on the 24th of November, 2023. There will be a research network event on the 23rd of November 2023 on the campus for the researchers to interact with the Bonn research ecosystem. Research contributions (basic and applied research pieces) addressing any aspects of Climate Security are welcome: Peace and Security Consequences of Climate Change. Besides this theme, other papers in the fields of climate change and environmental sciences with a particular reference to security aspects may also be submitted.

The call aims to explore the threats and risks that derivate from climate change and affect the peace and security prospects. Climate security and related risks have global security implications that will influence governance, conflict, and peace in profound ways. Early work on the security facets of climate change focused on the military and national security components of these threats, and later works have focused on the humanitarian consequences, including climate migration and displacement of the human population. Current research interests include diverse intersection and cross-cutting issues of climate change as terrorism or the risks and dangers attached to resources and waste management, amongst others. This conference will address the convergence of these various aspects of climate security.

The research seminar and conference is a joint undertaking between UNITAR (Division for Peace), the Technological University Dublin (Ireland), the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC, Spain), and the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM).

The Research conference is intended to bring together researchers engaged in Security Management, Peace & Development Studies, Economics, Resources, Political Science, Public, Disaster and Emergency Health, and Environmental Sciences doing climate change research. Doctoral students are strongly encouraged to submit papers for consideration. Applied research pieces and case studies coming from professionals and practitioners are as well encouraged to apply.

Security issues related to climate change include impacts on food, water and energy supplies, increased competition for natural resources, loss of livelihoods, climate-related disasters and forced migration and displacement, and health. Moreover, as previously mentioned, climate change can reinforce existing conflict axes or create new conflict dynamics in fragile contexts. This workshop aims to explore how we understand the international order and global stability in the face of this tension between climate change, security, and development. 

The aim is two-fold:

• First, it wants to gain knowledge to understand the extent of how climate change can impact and does have an influence on security scenarios assessments.
• Second, how do we correctly assess the challenges around this tension and growing relationship? Proposals that explore these issues are particularly encouraged to apply.

Proposed themes & interrelated topics

• The UN Climate Change, Security, and Peace Nexus.
• Security: The geo-political and security issues related to climate change.
• Disaster Risk Reduction, Emergency Operations, Public Health and Climate Change.
• Climate Change and Emergency and Disaster Medicine.
• Renewable & Solar Energy in Fragile Settings.
• Data analysis and data management to assess climate change risks and climate change mitigation.
• The Climate-Conflict Nexus is related to resource wars, insurgency, and terrorism.
• Organized Crime and Climate Change (including corruption, resource extraction and conflict-generating potentials).
• Climate Security and Higher Education.
• Geo-economics of climate change and interrelated security situations.
• Globalization and climate security inequalities
• Governments and international organizations respond to climate-related security risks.
• Climate change and resources management risks.
• Waste management security.
• Climate Change, Inequality, Minimum Access, and Just Earth Systems Boundaries
• Climate Finance, Accounting, Disclosure, Reporting and Assurance
• Pedagogical Approaches for Climate Change Education
•  Global Citizenship Education and the SDGs for Climate Change
• Transdisciplinary Pedagogy for Climate Change Education
• Interplay between Climate Change, Peacebuilding, and Business Models: Opportunities and Challenges
• The Triple Bottom Line: Climate Change, Fragility, and Peacebuilding through Business Models

More information here

This description was excerpted from unitar.org