On the 15th of December 2020, the High-level Panel on Green Alliance underlined the commitment of Caribbean states and the European Union (EU) to ambitious global climate action. Co-hosted by the German Federal Foreign Office and the European Commission, it demonstrated that action on climate change mitigation and resilience to climate-fragility risks will be core pillars for the future partnership between the two regions.
Caribbean countries have long suffered from the destructive impacts of natural hazards. Climate change is projected to make them worse. Its impacts are adding to population and urbanisation pressures, limited land, food, water and energy resources, resulting in environmental degradation, rising unemployment, inequality and poverty. This risk brief identifies three critical pathways that link climate change to fragility in the Caribbean.
Water is a critical resource everywhere, but in the Middle East, it is a defining issue. Changing demographics, poor management and climate change are pummelling the region’s already alarming water security situation. EcoPeace Middle East’s brand new report ‘A Green Blue Deal for the Middle East’ taps into water as a make-or-break issue for regional cooperation, economic development, and even for the future of peace negotiations.
This report seeks to inform Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian policy makers, and the understanding of international stakeholders, as they work to meet climate-related challenges in the Middle East. The authors’ assessment is that a deal that gives emphasis to the importance of water issues in the region is a feasible and effective policy approach to an urgent challenge, and one that can serve to address conflict drivers, advance a two state solution and promote trust-building and cooperation in a conflict-mired region.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects may exacerbate the risk of climate-related instability across the Middle East in the long term.
Women in the region suffer disproportionately from climate impacts, but they also play an essential role in addressing climate change. With the right policy responses, it is possible to reduce security risks and empower women to better address the challenges they face.
75 years ago, the UN was born. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN looks back at several important achievements, but much work on persisting challenges still lies ahead. Increased UN engagement in three areas can make the region more resilient to future challenges.
The "UN75 Regional Dialogue for the Americas: Toward Innovation and Renewal of Global and Regional Governance" (20 March–26 April 2020) was designed to bring diverse, multi-stakeholder, regional perspectives and actionable ideas into the final months of preparations for key global policy milestones of 2020, including the UN 75 Leaders Summit and its associated political declaration, as well as the 2020 Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture.
State fragility, often related to the expansion of organised crime and human rights violations, has contributed towards elevated rates of violence across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Additionally, high inequality is shaping how climate affects security in the region, raising new issues about climate justice and climate-related migration. In short, climate change acts as a risk multiplier in LAC, exacerbating existing conflict and fragility dynamics.
During the past two weeks, Antigua & Barbuda, Nicaragua and Panama ratified the Escazú Agreement, giving a major boost to the unprecedented and innovative Latin American pact that seeks to reduce social conflicts and protect frontline communities in the world’s deadliest region for environmental defenders.
The Online Regional Dialogue for the Americas serves as a platform to open the conservation around key issues and questions on the future of multilateralism and its impact at the global, regional and national levels in the Americas.
Africa in general, and the Sahel in particular, is often identified as the region where climate change is most likely to undermine security and trigger violent conflict. This is a function of the region’s history of violent conflict and its perceived vulnerability to climate change.
On 29 November in Rabat, adelphi partnered with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to hold a regional dialogue on climate change and fragility risks in North Africa and the Sahel.
This side event will advance this debate, including around policy solutions, through the launch of the report Climate and Security in Latin America and the Caribbean, a partnership between two Brazil-based organizations: Igarapé Institute and Institute for Climate and Society (ICS).