At a meeting of the Arctic Council, secretary of state Mike Pompeo refused to identify global warming as a threat, instead hailing an oil rush as sea ice melts. The US refused to join other Arctic countries in describing climate change as a key threat to the region, as a two-day meeting of foreign ministers drew to a close on Tuesday in Ravaniemi, Finland.
The challenges facing the international community are growing while the willingness to cooperate seems to be waning and unilateral action at times gets in the way of joint solutions. Foreign policy can pave the way for transformative change by actively supporting a major achievement of multilateralism: the 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals have a common aim: more peace and justice worldwide. But what exactly is the role of foreign policy in the global sustainability architecture? What are the fields of engagement and tools of a new "Diplomacy for Sustainability"?
The exhibition Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (ECC) shows the unprecedented environmental pressures and climate extremes that the world faces today. The ECC Exhibition in Mexico is being organised by GFLAC and adelphi. It is supported by a grant of the German Federal Foreign Office and is part of the Climate Diplomacy initiative.
Originally planned as a demonstration against fuel tax hikes, the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) revolts have sparked national and global debates. Some view the demonstrations as part of a rising anti-climate movement, while others draw parallels between the protests and demands for more climate action.
Intelligence analysts have agreed since the late 80s that climate change poses serious security risks. A series of authoritative governmental and non-governmental analyses over more than three decades lays a strong foundation for concern over climate change implications for national security.
adelphi has relaunched its exhibition Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (ECC) Exhibition to illustrate how unprecedented environmental changes interact with social, political, and economic risks to exacerbate conflict. We invite you to explore our online exhibition and to learn more about urgent issues of our time: climate, energy, migration, extractives, food and water.
2019 has only just begun, but it is already hard to imagine that there will be other extreme weather events with disastrous consequences such as cyclone Idai happening again this year. In all likelihood, such events will continue to occur as 2019 rolls on. Idai is, once more, proof of how devastating and toxic the mix of climate change, extreme weather events and poverty can be: Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe – countries that rank low in human development but contribute very little to global greenhouse gas emissions – suffer from some of the worst impacts of climate change.
Climate security risks are, by all interpretations, a global threat. But when it comes to setting a political climate security agenda, a handful of countries stand out. In an interview with Climate Diplomacy, Michaela Spaeth, Director for Energy and Climate Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office, highlights some of Germany’s goals and challenges in forwarding the issue during its 2019-20 membership in the UN Security Council.
Peatlands cover about 3% of the Earth’s land area, store huge amounts of carbon, and provide habitats for diverse flora and fauna. The recent UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, has adopted its first ever resolution on peatlands. A groundbreaking step!
The Planetary Security Conference brings together experts, policy makers and politicians from around the world to discuss how best to tackle the security risks of climate change. The conference also reports on progress towards meeting the ambitions of The Hague Declaration which set out an action agenda for the community of practice on climate security. This year we spent some time interviewing some of the participants to get their insights into how climate change affects international and human security.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is hosting the 2019 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development with the theme ‘From crisis response to peacebuilding: Achieving synergies’. The findings of a 2-year study on climate and fragility risks in the Lake Chad region will be launched at the Forum. The study provides recommendations for effective engagement in contexts affected by climate change and fragility.
Times of war can result in rapid environmental degradation as people struggle to survive and environmental management systems break down resulting in damage to critical ecosystems. For over six decades, armed conflicts have occurred in more than two-thirds of the world’s biodiversity hotspots thus posing critical threats to conservation efforts. [...]
The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring tool of countries' climate protection performances. It compares climate protection efforts and progresses made by individual countries. Up until now, no country has made it to one of the top three categories.