The UNFCCC Secretariat has announced that the negotiating text for the anticipated 2015 climate change agreement has been translated into the six official UN languages and formally communicated to governments. The text was agreed as the basis for negotiations by the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) at the eighth part of its second session in February 2015.
The global climate change agreement is expected to be adopted at the Paris Climate Change Conference in December 2015. According to the Secretariat, all the legal procedures required for countries to adopt a legal instrument under the UNFCCC have now been completed.
Communicating the text well in advance of the May 2015 deadline will allow early consideration of areas of emerging consensus and the range of options available to governments, according to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. The text contains various country proposals on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity building, and transparency of action and support.
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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.