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 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.
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.
This new research report by the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH) investigates to what extent the 15 current member states of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) perceive climate change as a threat to their own security and security worldwide and to what extent they integrate the climate change-security nexus – the multiple security threats posed by climate change – into their domestic and foreign policies and their respective positions in the UN.
The International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS) has released a new report urging leaders to make climate change a “security priority” in the Indo-Asia Pacific region.
This CSEN briefer outlines the different sets of tools available to the UN organs for responding to climate-security risks and offers the rationale for implementing these actions in the future. It includes an infographic displaying some of the potential actions the General Assembly, the UNFCCC, the Security Council, and the Economic and Social Council can and should take in order to address climate-security risks.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has so far been reluctant to tackle climate change. But as climate-related impacts on security become more apparent, questions of whether the UNSC should address the security implications of climate change become increasingly pertinent. While recognising the limits of UNSC action, this non-paper serves as a backgrounder to examine how climate change and security risks trigger the UNSC’s mandate for action, and what action the Council could take in response.
Climate change pressures are already interacting with conflict dynamics in the Horn of Africa. European actors are approaching climate security risks in the Horn through interventions and projects across the region. This CSEN Policy Paper provides an overview of the linkages, in the literature and in the region, between climate change or viarability and violent conflict, and an overview of some of the interventions in the region.
Over the past 15 years, climate-related risks to peace and stability have risen fast up the European agenda. This report explores the extent to which this policy focus has influenced the international agenda and the degree to which it has translated into improved European responses to the causes and consequences of insecurity in fragile states, proposing three areas of action.
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 and the scientific community through two sessions on the state of the art of climate and security and a high-level political segment. This summary outlines the highlights of the conference.
A new synthesis report for policymakers provides an overview of the growing research on the links between climate change, security and peace.
Traditional security actors and institutions facing complex socio-ecological dynamics stand on the brink of change. How do the 15 current UN Security Council member states approach the connections between climate change and security? In the new IFSH Policy Brief, Dr. Judith Nora Hardt presents the research results of the project "Climate Change and Security in the UN Security Council" (CLISEC UNSC) on this question.