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.
As part of this year’s online World Water Week at Home, adelphi and IHE Delft convened the workshop "Water diplomacy: a tool for climate action?". The workshop reflected on the role that foreign policy can play in mitigating, solving and potentially preventing conflicts over the management of transboundary water resources, especially in a changing climate.
The Cerrado, a tropical savannah region located in Central Brazil, is nearly half as large as the Amazon and a deforestation hotspot. Yet little attention is paid to this important biome. That has to change.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects may exacerbate the risk of climate-related instability across the Middle East in the long term.
With the European Green Deal, the European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen has committed to accelerating decarbonisation in Europe as a major priority. The report "The Geopolitics of Decarbonization: Reshaping European Foreign Relations" shows how the EU’s external relations need to evolve to adequately reflect the political, economic and social outcomes of this process.