The Climate Security Expert Network goes online
If the United Nations is to effectively deal with climate-related security risks, it needs expert support from every region. That’s where the Climate Security Expert Network comes in.
There is a broadly held consensus that climate change is a risk multiplier. Yet this consensus is not matched by a common understanding or agreement on what to do about this situation. In order to help fill the knowledge gap and move climate-related security risks higher up the United Nations’ political agenda, adelphi and the German Federal Foreign Office brought together stakeholders from across the world to launch the Climate Security Expert Network (CSEN).
How does the Climate Security Expert Network work?
The Climate Security Expert Network supports policy-makers within and beyond the UN by synthesising knowledge on climate-fragility risks and making this knowledge easily accessible for policy-makers. It comprises some 30 experts from backgrounds such as academia, foreign and security policy, and non-governmental organisations. They will synthesise scientific knowledge and expertise, advise on entry points for building resilience to climate-security risks, and help to strengthen a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities of addressing climate-related security risks. To this end, the network produces thematic and geographic analyses. Geographic analyses come in the shape of two-page factsheets summarising risks and entry points, whereas longer risk briefs provide context and further analysis.
Risk Briefs on Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Pacific, and South Asia
The first four risk briefs – on Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Pacific, and South Asia – are already available on the CSEN website. These reports detail how climate change can worsen poverty, weaken governance, and contribute to instability: for example, more frequent droughts in Afghanistan will boost the drug economy in the country by encouraging farmers to plant poppies, a drought-resistant crop.
Climate change and security: Advancing the debate
Interested readers can also find a section with frequently asked questions about why climate change is a threat to security and thus a matter of concern for the UN Security Council (UNSC), as well as a short history of UNSC engagement on the issue.
The UNSC is an essential actor when it comes to advancing the debate and encouraging effective action. The Berlin Call to Action, published in the framework of the inaugural 2019 Berlin Climate Security Conference, recognised the importance of the body and called for 1) risk-informed planning 2) enhanced capacity for action and 3) improved operational responses.
Background information
adelphi runs the Secretariat for the network, which was made possible by a grant from the German Federal Foreign Office. The network will continue its work in the coming months and years, adding new regional risk briefs and holding consultation processes.
For further information, please visit the Climate Security Expert Network (CSEN) website or contact the Secretariat.
At the conclusion of the 50th Pacific Islands Forum, Pacific leaders issued a Forum Communiqué and the ‘Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Change Action Now’ – the strongest collective statement the Forum has issued on climate change. Pacific leaders highlight the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit, the SAMOA Pathway Review, and 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the UNFCCC as “global turning points to ensure meaningful, measurable and effective climate change action”.
If ratified, the Mercosur-EU trade deal may reinforce the parties’ commitment to climate action. Yet, its potential relevance is weakened by a language that often stops short of concrete commitments, as well as political resistance.
Climate Change Is Exacerbating Iraq’s Complicated Water Politics
Iraq is on the verge of an environmental breakdown, and climate change is not helping. The country's fragile environment and the increasing scarcity of natural resources — particularly water — are a result of poor environmental management, as well as several political and historical factors. However, as climate change impacts add to the existing pressures, the environmental collapse turns into a security issue.
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.