Climate talks hosted by the French government this week achieved significant progress on key issues ahead of a proposed global pact later this year, say participants.
Ministers from 46 countries converged on Paris for the two-day summit, aimed at speeding negotiations that were recently described as travelling at a “snail’s pace” by Ban Ki-moon.
Critically, there appears to be a better understanding of how the responsibilities of slashing greenhouse gas emissions will be balanced between rich and poor countries.
Giza Gaspar Martins, a diplomat from Angola, told RTCC governments will “self-differentiate” and evaluate their capacity to contribute to a UN deal.
“We are moving away from attempting to develop lists of countries and where they fit in terms of a category,” said Martins, who leads the world’s poorest countries in the UN’s climate negotiations. “Because we are self-differentiating, countries will describe where each ought to be in a pecking order.”
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The European Green Deal has made the environment and climate change the focus of EU action. Indeed, climate change impacts are already increasing the pressure on states and societies; however, it is not yet clear how the EU can engage on climate security and environmental peacemaking. In this light, and in the run-up to the German EU Council Presidency, adelphi and its partners are organising a roundtable series on “Climate, environment, peace: Priorities for EU external action in the decade ahead”.
In January 2020, the German Federal Foreign Office launched Green Central Asia, a regional initiative on climate and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The aim of the initiative is to support a dialogue in the region on climate change and associated risks in order to foster regional integration between the six countries involved.
Climate change will shift key coordinates of foreign policy in the coming years and decades. Even now, climate policy is more than just environment policy; it has long since arrived at the centre of foreign policy. The German Foreign Office recently released a report on climate diplomacy recognizing the biggest challenges to security posed by climate change and highlighting fields of action for strengthening international climate diplomacy.
A high-level ministerial conference in Berlin is looking at the impact of climate change on regional security in Central Asia. The aim is to foster stronger regional cooperation, improve the exchange of information and form connections with academia and civil society.