This new report by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in collaboration with the Clingendael Institute and other Dutch research institutes points to pressure on security and migration arising from too little, too much or polluted water. Many integrated solutions are possible to divert this trend towards a sustainable and climate-resilient world.
Working with over 30 partners, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has recently launched the Resource Watch. The platform provides a wide array of data sets on various sustainability topics, ranging from food security to urban climate challenges.
The past two decades have witnessed the emergence of a large body of research examining the linkage between environmental scarcity, violent conflict, and cooperation. However, this environmental security polemic is still trying to deliver a well-defined approach to achieving peace.
Conflict and climate change have pushed 124 million people in 51 countries into acute food security, a situation when the inability to consume adequate food represents an immediate danger to people’s lives and livelihoods. In 2017, the number of people affected by acute food insecurity increased by 11 million. These are the main findings of a publication titled, “Global Report on Food Crises,” released by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).
This policy brief explores the way in which linking climate change adaptation and peacebuilding measures presents opportunities and challenges for conflict prevention. It argues that integrating these two sectors could play a major role in preventing the triggering and escalation of climate-related conflicts and in promoting peace. However, integrating climate change adaptation and peacebuilding remains a challenge for practitioners. This policy brief outlines the key issues that must be resolved in order to make progress towards a more holistic approach and greater resilience.
"From Riches to Rags?" looks into the subject of stranded assets in the fossil fuel sector. Stranded assets are assets that lose value, or generate new liabilities, before they reach the end of their (planned) economic life. In this paper, assets primarily refer to fossil fuel resources (oil, gas and coal) that need to stay in the ground because otherwise the 2-degree target specified in the Paris Agreement would be jeopardised.
As climate security challenges are typically transnational in nature, states are increasingly relying on intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)—such as the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)—in their responses to them. However, the growing importance of IGOs raises a number of questions.
The report “New dots on the security horizon” analyses the top threats to EU security identified by the Clingendael Expert Pool that brings together over 200 experts on five selected fields (climate change, CBRN, free trade, migration and terrorism). It summarizes the results of an online survey that was conducted in order to identify and compile a shortlist of upcoming and new threats.
It is undoubtedly a challenge for climate policy actors to identify reliable evidence to support sound decision-making processes for tackling climate issues effectively. Still, differentiating between fact and fiction, well-designed and invalid science, evidence- or interest-based arguments is precisely what determines the quality of climate policies.