10 Insights into Climate Impacts and Peace
New report for policymakers provides an overview of the growing research on the links between climate change, security and peace. The synthesis identifies ten insights into climate-related security risks and lays the groundwork for the 'Global Climate Security Risk and Foresight Assessment', led by adelphi and PIK, that will be launched at the Berlin Climate and Security Conference.
Climate change is one of the most pressing political issues of our time. The unprecedented nature and scale of its impacts on people, economies and ecosystems worldwide are becoming clearer as science advances. One critical dimension of these impacts are their effect on international peace and security.
Yet to-date, the knowledge base on climate and security has remained dispersed and patchy, leaving policy makers unclear about how to grapple with this urgent issue. This new report synthesises and contextualises the existing scientific evidence to set out ten insights, which brief policymakers on the current knowledge of security risks related to climate change.
Access the Full Report here.
The ten insights, ranging from the peace and security implications of climate impacts on livelihoods and human mobility, to the unintended consequences of poorly designed climate and security policies themselves, lay the groundwork for the German Foreign Office-supported Global Climate Security Risk and Foresight Assessment that will be launched at the Berlin Climate and Security Conference.
The implication of these insights is that, if we do not act swiftly, climate change will mean more fragility, less peace and less security. The risks that climate change presents to international peace and security need to be addressed across the entire impact chain: by mitigating climate change, attenuating its consequences on ecosystems, adapting socio-economic systems, better managing the heightened resource competition climate change will bring about and by strengthening governance and conflict management institutions to cope with the changes in store without violence. The first step to all of this is a robust and authoritative risk assessment. The first outputs of the Global Climate Security Risk and Foresight Assessment will be published in 2021.
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Managing climate and disaster risk in fragile states
No country is immune to natural hazards, but for fragile states, the effects are even more severe. Mostly, conflict prevention and humanitarian aid are seen as more pressing priorities to protect livelihoods there. This pushes efforts of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction to the bottom of the priority list and results in compounded pressures.
As the debate over climate-related security risks grows, many Pacific Island States are calling for more action by the international community to better address the links between climate change and global security. In an interview with adelphi, the former President of Nauru, Baron Waqa, highlights some of these calls as well as the challenges in getting the climate-security issue on the UN’s agenda.
A record breaking European heatwave provided a fitting backdrop to the latest round of UN climate change talks, in which delegates from around the world descended on Bonn for a two-week diplomatic effort.
Berlin is calling – will the world listen?
Climate and security were the focus of a high-level foreign policy conference held in Berlin in early June. At the core of the conference was the “Berlin Call for Action”, which sets out three concrete action areas for tackling the threats posed by climate change to peace and security, namely risk-informed planning, enhanced capacity for action and improved operational response. But what if the world doesn’t listen?