A lack of targeted policies to manage climate migration in South Asia is aggravating the vulnerabilities of various communities in the region. International and regional cooperation and strategy on climate action (broadly) and climate migration (specifically) is the need of the hour.
In his address on this year’s World Cities Day, UN-Secretary General António Guterres recognised that “cities have borne the brunt of the pandemic” and called upon governments to “prepare cities for future disease outbreaks”. Authorities cannot waste this opportunity to build back better by simultaneously addressing the increasing economic hardship for the urban poor and climate change impacts. This will help prevent not only future health risks but also the increased risk of urban violence and insecurity.
In Sudan, the term ‘climate war’ has often been used to draw a direct causal link between climate change and conflict. In reality, these conflicts are far more complex, which can be traced back to a history of regional marginalisation, ethno-occupational tensions, and failures in governance.
This policy brief provides a typology and analysis of climate-related security risks in the first round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
This year’s International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP) is titled: Just Transitions Toward Sustainable Societies in Asia and the Pacific: Building forward better for our future beyond COVID-19.
Tensions in the South China Sea increased last April when a Chinese coast guard ship sank a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands—a fiercely disputed territory in the South China Sea. Disputes over island territories in the region have endured for decades, with China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei all making overlapping territorial claims. The region is rich in natural resources and biodiversity, holding vast fish stocks and an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 cubic feet of natural gas.
This policy brief explores initial lessons learnt from a climate security perspective of efforts to prevent violent extremism in politically and environmentally fragile contexts affected by climate change.
Although Nepal’s overall security situation has improved considerably and is stable, important underlying drivers and structural causes of conflict still exist. Climate change accentuates Nepal’s economic and political vulnerabilities. Climate impacts can act as a stressor on existing drivers and structural causes of conflict, adding an additional layer of risk to Nepal’s resilience.
The 2020 Berlin Climate and Security Conference (BCSC) proved an important space for international organisations, the scientific community, the private sector and civil society to convene, discuss how climate change is affecting peace and security, and to explore the concrete actions to address climate-security risks.
As political and public narratives on COVID-19 shift towards the need to ‘build back better’, the pandemic continues to take a heavy toll for many. A new report by the Climate Security Expert Network (CSEN) shows how COVID-19 can exacerbate climate-related security risks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profound global impacts. While all countries have been affected, the pandemic is hitting those that were already struggling with poverty, conflict and the impacts of climate change especially hard. This report seeks to explore these dynamics.