In 2020 the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), together with adelphi and the Climate Diplomacy initiative, with support from the German Federal Foreign Office, organised two series of online workshops. The series brought together civil society experts and policymakers to discuss challenges, lessons learned, best practices and recommendations relating to how to address the linkages between climate change, conflict and peace.
The discussions were focused in particular on how to integrate peacebuilding efforts and climate resilience programming, including through initiatives bringing communities together to address the effects of climate change and prevent conflict. A report presents the key points from the discussions in the eight workshops in the series, while a policy brief presents a summary of the key points and recommendations.
Download the serie's policy brief and the full report.
Recordings are available for two of the serie's sessions:
24 September 2020 - Community Resilience to Climate Change and Conflict: Lessons From the Pacific
01 October 2020 - MARSABIT: Documentary Screening & Interactive Discussion
EPLO
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?