The first part of the 2020 Berlin Climate and Security Conference took place online on June 23 and 24, 2020, bringing together leading figures from governments, international organisations, the scientific community, the private sector and civil society through two sessions on the state of the art of climate and security and a high-level political segment. From September 7 to October 2, the second part of the BCSC 2020 will reflect on how more comprehensive risk assessments could support forward-looking and preventative foreign and security policy.

There is increasing evidence that climate change is undermining livelihoods, food and water security in rural and urban areas around the world, thereby acting as a “risk multiplier” in fragile and conflict-prone situations. The conference will explore how more comprehensive climate-security risk assessments could help in creating a forward-looking and preventative foreign and security policy, and offer a space to discuss the role that the international community, and the UN Security Council in particular, can and should take in this respect, including during Germany’s membership of the UN Security Council in 2020.