On 27 February 2018, as reported in Council conclusions 6125/18, the EU Foreign Affairs Council adopted conclusions on climate diplomacy. It marks the formal signaling of EU’s Foreign Ministers to make climate security a priority.
The conclusions recognise that climate change has direct and indirect implications for international security and stability. Climate projects in developing countries need to become more conflict sensitive while security approaches more climate sensitive. The document calls for further mainstreaming the nexus between climate change and security in policy dialogue, conflict prevention, development and humanitarian action and disaster risk strategies.
The EU promotes here the ongoing work in the framework of the G7 and in the UN system and encourage the UNSC to increase its focus on the climate and security nexus. The Council calls for effective responses to climate security risks across policy areas; and underlines the importance of translating climate and security analysis into possible action, referring to the 2017 Hague Declaration as part of the Planetary Security Conference series as an example.
A high-level event on climate and security at the initiative of HR/VP Federica Mogherini will be held in Brussels in June 2018, underlining the EU’s commitment to address the destabilising effects and risks of climate change. In addition, Members of the European Parliament (Arne Lietz and Jo Leinen) plan an own initiative report on the topic, which is also due for June 2018.
Colombia’s long-standing internal conflict and the country’s contribution to climate change share one common root cause: land concentration. Policies to strengthen access to land and to ensure sustainable land use might therefore hold the key to promoting peacebuilding in Colombia, while simultaneously reducing emissions.
As disasters wreak havoc all over South Asia, health impacts have increasingly emerged as a major concern for communities and governments in the region. It underscores the need for concerted efforts towards building synergies between the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly now, in the post-disaster reconstruction phase, to ensure “building back better” and future disaster prevention.
In the Inner Mongolian county of Horinger, Northwestern China, afforestation efforts have transformed a barren, dusty landscape into a pine forest. Planting trees has diminished the sandstorms, boosted biodiversity and improved the environment generally. As the climate emergency worsens, the potential for planted trees to draw carbon out of the atmosphere is being re-examined. What can the world learn from the Chinese experience with afforestation?
Two events in August 2019 underlined the complexity of paving the way to a climate-neutral world: the publishing of the new IPCC report and the Amazon fires. Both events demand that climate diplomats move beyond a narrowed focus on energy in decarbonisation debates.