Climate change is a real and pressing issue affecting the Sahel and Maghreb regions of North and West Africa today. Weather pattern changes are causing desertification and prolonged drought in these regions. The Gulf of Guinea experienced an increase in water temperatures over recent decades, shifting rainclouds in the Sahel farther south. Consequently, between 1996 and 2006, Algeria lost 13,000 km2 of its land to desertification, while Nigeria lost 3,500 km2.
While a characteristic of the Sahel region is variable precipitation, in the second half of the 20th century, the region has experienced a dramatic decrease in average rainfall, as much as a 50% reduction. In addition, droughts occur now in two out of five years, which causes harvests to be highly uncertain.
Detrimental effects from climate change further exacerbate the growing strife and instability of the region, acting as a “threat multiplier.” These effects include increased water scarcity, lack of food security, and increased desertification. These may significantly increase instability in weak or failing states by overstretching governments’ capacities.
Over the next twenty to thirty years, these conditions will fuel the growing threat of Islamic radicalization in the Sahel and Maghreb areas of Africa. This will constitute one of the most important dangers posed to both American and global security.
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To fight illegal coca plantations and conflict actors’ income sources, Colombia’s president wants to loosen the ban on aerial glyphosate spraying. However, considering the dynamics of organised crime, the use of toxic herbicides will not only fail to achieve its aim, it will have many adverse effects for the environment and human health, fundamentally undermining ways to reach peace in the country. International cooperation and national policy-makers need to account for this peace spoiler.
As India grapples with the worsening impacts of climate change, the need to strengthen its adaptation efforts has become more significant than ever. Climate diplomacy and mainstreaming climate adaptation into the most vulnerable sectors could provide some solutions to overcoming barriers, such as the lack of sustainable funding.
“Climate Security risks will materialise in very different ways and forms, whether we talk about Lake Chad or about the Arctic, Bangladesh and the Small Island Developing States,” said the EU’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Joao Vale de Almeida, in his opening remarks. “But for the EU, there is no doubt, as underlined in 2016 in our Global Strategy, and reaffirmed by the 28 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, that climate change is a major threat to the security of the EU and to global peace and security more generally,” he said.
The challenges facing the international community are growing while the willingness to cooperate seems to be waning. Foreign policy must help bridge this gap. One way to accomplish this is by pushing forward a major achievement of multilateralism: the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. At a side event during the 2019 High-Level Political Forum, diplomats and policy experts discussed the role of foreign policy in the global sustainability architecture.