The Climate Change Conference in Doha has illustrated once more the time consuming process to negotiate an agreement. Further steps have to be taken to slow down climate change. As part COP 18 in Doha, an event held by the Federal Foreign Office looked at the joint steps Europe could take with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Representatives of the Federal Foreign Office, the European Commission, the ASEAN Secretariat and other stakeholders discussed how the negative consequences of climate change such as flooding and storms can be overcome in joint strategies. The talks were moderated by adelphi's Managing Director, Alexander Carius.
Laurence Graff from the European Commission's Directorate General for Climate Action emphasised the importance of alliances for an ambitious agreement on global climate protection, and stressed that these require the systematic practice of climate diplomacy. Positive experiences in transboundary water cooperation could be further developed in this connection with partners in the Asia-Pacific region. The discussion also highlighted the fact that issues such as migration and water shortage have so far not been sufficiently dealt with in international climate negotiations, and further appraoches in climate diplomacy should therefore be developed.
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To fight illegal coca plantations and conflict actors’ income sources, Colombia’s president wants to loosen the ban on aerial glyphosate spraying. However, considering the dynamics of organised crime, the use of toxic herbicides will not only fail to achieve its aim, it will have many adverse effects for the environment and human health, fundamentally undermining ways to reach peace in the country. International cooperation and national policy-makers need to account for this peace spoiler.
As India grapples with the worsening impacts of climate change, the need to strengthen its adaptation efforts has become more significant than ever. Climate diplomacy and mainstreaming climate adaptation into the most vulnerable sectors could provide some solutions to overcoming barriers, such as the lack of sustainable funding.
“Climate Security risks will materialise in very different ways and forms, whether we talk about Lake Chad or about the Arctic, Bangladesh and the Small Island Developing States,” said the EU’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Joao Vale de Almeida, in his opening remarks. “But for the EU, there is no doubt, as underlined in 2016 in our Global Strategy, and reaffirmed by the 28 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, that climate change is a major threat to the security of the EU and to global peace and security more generally,” he said.
The challenges facing the international community are growing while the willingness to cooperate seems to be waning. Foreign policy must help bridge this gap. One way to accomplish this is by pushing forward a major achievement of multilateralism: the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. At a side event during the 2019 High-Level Political Forum, diplomats and policy experts discussed the role of foreign policy in the global sustainability architecture.