adelphi and partners hold climate-fragility training in Nepal
Nepal and Afghanistan face a number of serious climate-fragility risks, so adelphi brought together regional government officials and NGO experts for a training in Kathmandu on 9 November 2019.
Nepal and Afghanistan – as well as their South Asian neighbours - face a number of serious climate-fragility risks. For example, in Nepal, floods and landslides have made it harder for some people to make a living and forced them to consider migrating to other areas of the country. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, increasingly frequent droughts are encouraging farmers to resort to more drought-resistant crops, such as poppy plants, which can boost the drug economy.
In order to improve the region’s ability to adapt to climate change, adelphi, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Practical Action Nepal brought together experts from the Afghani and Nepalese governments, as well as local and national civil society organisations, international organisations and donors, and the academia, to analyse and discuss the knock-on consequences of climate change.
The training, which took place at the Hotel Greenwich in Kathmandu on November 9th, was based on an Integrated Climate-Fragility Risk Assessment tool that links peacebuilding and climate change adaption, developed by UNEP and adelphi as part of the EU-funded Climate Change and Fragility project.
Participants highlighted the importance of addressing the social dimension of climate challenges and gave examples of specific experiences and projects at the nexus of climate and security. As Dr. Beatrice Mosello of adelphi put it, “It is important to understand how climate change interacts with other drivers or risk. Without quantifying these trends, the world will continue to underestimate the scale of climate change.”
This was just the first of several trainings and workshops in South Asia planned for the rest of 2019. Stay tuned for the launch of adelphi’s Climate Security Expert Network website, where you can find fact sheets and detailed risk reports on the climate-fragility risks in chosen countries.
Ethiopia’s climate fragility and security linkage too serious to ignore
Until recently, impressive economic growth, stable leadership and its attractiveness as a foreign investment hub put Ethiopia in a positive spotlight. However, the country still ranks low in human development and is highly dependent on rainfed agriculture, making it particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Combined with existing tensions and inequalities, climate vulnerability can exacerbate security risks. To mitigate these linkages, Ethiopia’s leadership should support implementation of conflict-sensitive climate change adaptation policies and include climate security in its conflict mitigation strategy.
adelphi and ICCCAD hold climate fragility roundtable in Dhaka
On 19 November in Dhaka, adelphi partnered with the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) to hold a roundtable and discussion on climate change and fragility risks in South Asia.
One of the world’s lowest-lying countries invited international experts to discuss the security challenges related to climate change.
At a briefing ahead of the COP25, foreign minister Heiko Maas called for higher ambition for the European Union, which should act as a role-model to encourage other states to boost their commitments to climate action. He further reiterated the importance of supporting multilateralism and an international climate regime that is able to withstand setbacks, such as the US withdrawal of the Paris Agreement.