The climate diplomacy podcast gives insights to current topics in international climate diplomacy. Our hosts interviews authors of recent publications or experts on their take of what needs to be done to promote climate foreign policy.
This episode features Andrew Gilmour, Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation, and Janani Vivekananda, Senior Advisor at adelphi, in an intimate fireside chat. Moderated by renowned mediator and former diplomat Günther Baechler, they discuss why and how climate change and environmental considerations should be an integral part of conflict analysis and peacebuilding processes. The speakers’ vast experiences seeing first-hand the effects of climate change on conflict dynamics around the world allows for an interesting and lively discussion about climate change in peacebuilding.
The world needs to undergo a deep, transformative change to achieve sustainability. Yet, progress on many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda is lagging while the willingness to cooperate internationally often seems to be waning. Foreign policy must help bridge this gap, ensuring ambition and providing guidance. In this episode of the Climate Diplomacy Podcast, host Martin Wall discusses the role of foreign affairs in the global sustainability architecture with Daria Ivleva, one of the editors of adelphi’s recent publication Driving Transformative Change: Foreign Affairs and the Agenda 2030.
Interviewee: Daria Ivleva, adelphi
Right-wing populist parties are already part of the governments of seven EU member states and are expected to make up a quarter of MEPs after the European elections in May 2019. The dwindling trust of citizens in democratic institutions and in Europe, the re-sorting of party spectrums, the declining influence of traditional popular parties as well as the emergence of multi-party coalitions and minority governments will all make governance increasingly difficult. At the same time, we are experiencing a profound transformation of life, work and mobility through digitalisation, urbanisation and climate change. In this episode host Martin Wall talks to the authors of an explorative study on the the voices and the weight of right-wing populist parties in the formulation of European climate policy.
Interviewees: Stella Schaller and Alexander Carius, adelphi
You can download the study "Convenient Truths - Mapping climate agendas of right-wing populist parties in Europe" here.
The Planetary Security Conference brings together experts, policy makers and politicians from around the world to discuss how best to tackle the security risks of climate change. The conference also reports on progress towards meeting the ambitions of The Hague Declaration which set out an action agenda for the community of practice on climate security. This year we spent some time interviewing some of the participants to get their insights into how climate change affects international and human security.
Interviewees include:
Also watch the Best of Video of the Planetary Security Conference 2019.
With climate change increasingly being seen as a security issue, we ask what role the United Nations Security Council could and should play. To answer this question, we are joined on the Climate Diplomacy Podcast by UN expert and Chatham House Associate Fellow Oli Brown. In this podcast, Oli explains some of the challenges that the UN Security Council has had in tackling climate change and outlines the prospects for action in the future.
Interviewee: Oli Brown, Chatham House
Martin Wall is an Irish Research Council/European Commission funded Marie Curie CAROLINE Fellow who is currently seconded to adelphi and contributes to the Climate Diplomacy Project. He is funded through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 713279.
European peatlands could turn from carbon sinks to sources as a quarter have reached levels of dryness unsurpassed in a record stretching back 2,000 years, according to a new study. This trend of “widespread” and “substantial” drying corresponds to recent climate change, both natural and human-caused, but may also be exacerbated by the peatlands being used for agriculture and fuel.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands has contributed $28 million to back FAO's work to boost the resilience of food systems in Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan - part of a new initiative to scale-up resilience-based development work in countries affected by protracted crises.
A group of five small countries have announced that they will launch negotiations on a new Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability, which, if successful, would constitute the first international trade agreement focused solely on climate change and sustainable development. The initiative also breaks new ground by aiming to simultaneously remove barriers for trade in environmental goods and services and crafting binding rules to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. Small countries can pioneer the development of new trade rules that can help achieve climate goals, but making credible commitments, attracting additional participants, and ensuring transparency will be essential ingredients for long-term success.
Ten years after committing to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, G20 countries still subsidise coal, oil and gas to the tune of around USD 150 billion annually. Peer review of fossil fuel subsidies help push the G20 forward on this issue, but these reviews need to be followed by action. Subsidy reforms could free up resources that could be channeled back into government programmes and on accelerating a clean energy transition.