As part of the University of Queensland’s ongoing partnership with adelphi, the Environment, Conflict and Cooperation exhibition was on display at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane for three weeks from July-August 2016.
The exhibition was very well received by students and staff at UQ as well as the wider Brisbane community. The ECC Exhibition is part of the Climate Diplomacy Initiative that is a collaborative effort of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany with adelphi, a leading Berlin-based think tank for applied research, policy analysis and consultancy on global change issues.
The exhibition was accompanied by two public events. Associate Professor Matt McDonald from UQ’s School of Politics and International Studies presented a seminar on ‘Climate Change and Security’. The lecture outlined discourses and contemporary thinking on the climate change-security relationship, particularly as it relates to the nation-state, the international community, human welfare or even ecosystem resilience. It made a strong case for climate change as the defining global security threat: now and especially into the future.
The seminar was well-attended and concluded with a lively discussion on climate thresholds, range of security implications and likely next steps across policy and practice.
The exhibition’s closing was marked by a panel discussion on ‘Issues of Global Change’ that brought together three of UQ’s top researchers in the areas of water, energy, mining and conflict. Dr Nina Hall (Global Change Institute, Sustainable Water Program), Professor Paul Lant (co-leader Energy and Poverty Research Group) and Professor Saleem Ali (Sustainable Minerals Institute) each presented their views on the interlinkages among these three critical areas of global concern as well as outlined UQ’s leading efforts on this front.
In total, nearly 80 people attended the two events. The exhibition received a strong endorsement from the speakers as well as the audience for its innovative style of story-telling that brought together compelling evidence of change happening across several world regions. A final message that came through from these discussions was around the enormous challenge that lies ahead of us and that there is no room for complacency moving forward.
You can explore the online version of the Environment, Conflict and Cooperation exhibition here.
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.
Climate change is increasingly challenging global security and undermining peacebuilding efforts. UN Environment and the European Union have joined forces to address these challenges. With the support of adelphi, they have developed a toolkit on ‘Addressing climate-fragility risks’. This toolkit facilitates the development and implementation of strategies, policies, and projects that seek to build resilience by linking climate change adaptation, peacebuilding, and sustainable livelihoods, focusing on the pilot countries Sudan and Nepal.
Nobody needs to be convinced that climate change affects our very existence and security. However, experts are interested to know how climate change affects security at a global level and what the EU can do in that regard. This was the main aim of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) Climate Change and Security Course co-organised by the French Institute for Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN) and adelphi, as part of the Climate Diplomacy initiative supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, which took place in Brussels from 21 to 23 October 2019.
The new study Shoring up Stability demonstrates, for the first time, how climate change interacts with conflict and exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region. To launch the report and discuss its findings with local policy-makers, experts and practitioners, the German Embassy in Niger, adelphi and CNESS co-organised a launch event on 24 October in Niamey. Insights from Niger point to the importance of investing in governance rather than technical fixes.