.

Back to Overview
Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
Security
Global Issues
16 November, 2016

Global Climate and Security Consensus Statement

Planetary Security Initiative

Now that the at times turbulent US election has past, attention must return to cooperating on the global challenges that affect us all, like climate change which 23 high profile military leaders and experts from around the world have today labelled as a threat to peace and stability. In a joint Global Climate and Security Consensus Statement issued by the Climate Security Working Group, the signatories have called for world leaders to address climate risk in their national, regional and international security planning.

Signatories range from Rear Admiral David Titley, Ph.D., U.S. Navy (ret) Former Oceanographer of the Navy Professor of Practice, Pennsylvania State University to Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem Ghazi (ret) Pakistan and former Dutch diplomat, Alexander Verbeek, who founded the Institute for Planetary Security. The Institute is involved in an annual conference in The Hague on December 5 and 6 which will explore how to build peace and cooperation in times of climate change and global environmental challenges.

The Climate Security Working Group - International is a non-partisan collective of experts who work together to ensure governments are responding to the risk posed to peace and security by climate change.

The statement comes after the Obama Administration launched a presidential memo in September which requires the National Security Council complete an "Action Plan" to address climate security by around December 21 and follow up with an implementation plan by the end of February. This move is considered to be one of the most comprehensive responses to climate and security issues of a national government so far, and comes off the back of the G7's work in the area. At the Paris Climate Summit last year, a "Climate Displacement Task Force" was established to draw up recommendations on measures "to avert, minimise and address displacement related to the adverse effects of climate change." But of course there is much more to do with very few countries having actually incorporate climate change risk into their defense strategies.

Read the statement. 

 

This article originally appeared on the Planetary Security Initiative's website.

The Planetary Security Conference, co-organised by adelphi and other leading think tanks, is meant to address the climate-security nexus and will take place from 5-6 December in The Hague.  

Source:
Planetary Security Initiative
Related Reading 
Planetary Security Conference 2016

How can climate-induced risks become an integral part of foreign and security policy? The Planetary Security Conference, organised by adelphi and other leading think tanks, is meant to deliver answers to this question and will take place from 5-6 December in The Hague.  

Read more
Planetary Security Conference 2015 in Videos

Acknowledging that climate change is a global threat to security in the 21st century, the Dutch government has convened an international conference on Planetary Security on 2-3 November 2015 in the Hague. The aim of the conference was to facilitate strategic exchange on existing foreign policy and security architecture.

Read more
Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
Global Issues
17 April, 2019

Games with new frontiers? Old and new environmental risks on the horizon

Dennis Tänzler, adelphi

2019 has only just begun, but it is already hard to imagine that there will be other extreme weather events with disastrous consequences such as cyclone Idai happening again this year. In all likelihood, such events will continue to occur as 2019 rolls on. Idai is, once more, proof of how devastating and toxic the mix of climate change, extreme weather events and poverty can be: Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe – countries that rank low in human development but contribute very little to global greenhouse gas emissions – suffer from some of the worst impacts of climate change.

Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
Energy
Environment & Migration
Land & Food
Water
Global Issues
17 April, 2019

Explore the Six Trends of Environmental Change: ECC Exhibition Relaunched

Daria Ivleva and Pia van Ackern, adelphi

adelphi has relaunched its exhibition Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (ECC) Exhibition to illustrate how unprecedented environmental changes interact with social, political, and economic risks to exacerbate conflict. We invite you to explore our online exhibition and to learn more about urgent issues of our time: climate, energy, migration, extractives, food and water.

Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
Security
Global Issues
15 April, 2019

“We will address climate-related security risks in the Security Council” – Interview with German Diplomat Michaela Spaeth

adelphi

Climate security risks are, by all interpretations, a global threat. But when it comes to setting a political climate security agenda, a handful of countries stand out. In an interview with Climate Diplomacy, Michaela Spaeth, Director for Energy and Climate Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office, highlights some of Germany’s goals and challenges in forwarding the issue during its 2019-20 membership in the UN Security Council.

Adaptation & Resilience
Climate Change
Conflict Transformation
Security
Water
Sub-Saharan Africa
12 April, 2019

Planetary Security Conference 2019: Spotlight Region Mali

Planetary Security Initiative

The Planetary Security Conference 2019, which concluded on 20 February, saw a number of workshops being held on the Sahel region and specifically Mali, one of the Conference’s three spotlight regions. These workshops examined the region’s climate-water-security risks as well as the #doable actions and solutions to address these issues.