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.
The world risks crossing the point of no return on climate change, with disastrous consequences for people across the planet and the natural systems that sustain them, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Monday, calling for more leadership and greater ambition for climate action, to reverse course.
The risks of a global supergrid
China’s vision of a global energy system overemphasises the benefits of connectivity. Planners and investors also have to consider the potential impacts on biodiversity and local community livelihoods from different power generation methods and find ways to prevent them.
Will the transition to green energy foster peace or exacerbate conflict?
A new report analyses how the transition to a low-carbon economy – and the minerals and metals required to make that shift – could affect fragility, conflict, and violence dynamics in mineral-rich states.
Transboundary EIAs could reduce conflict over river projects
Ignoring cross border impacts of large infrastructure projects will spark conflict along rivers, argues Peter King. National level environmental impact assessments that ignore cross border impacts are likely to create conflict between countries.