As mentioned in the Council Conclusions on Climate Diplomacy (26 February 2018) the high level event will ‘underline the growing importance of addressing the destabilising effects and risks of climate change and reconfirm the EU’s and its partners’ commitment to switch and ambitious action’. The gathering comes ten years after the landmark joint report on climate change and international security by High Representative Javier Solana and the European Commission.

The high-level gathering will focus on two main themes: the responsibility to prepare in the face of climate security risks; and moving from early warning to early action. It is inspired by the EU Global Strategy’s integrated approach to risk and security, and the EU’s commitment to monitor and act upon the root causes of conflict. The objective is to examine the climate-security nexus by bringing together climate, foreign and security policy leaders from across the world, in order to identify the range of approaches which can be taken to address the global and growing challenge.

The responsibility to prepare in the face of climate security riskstheme will address the need to better assess, anticipate and prepare for the increasingly severe and numerous climate-related situations for which diplomatic, law enforcement and defence capabilities are increasingly being called upon to intervene. Examining different types of challenges in different parts of the world, the participants will highlight how climate action needs to become more conflict sensitive, while at the same time security approaches need to be more climate sensitive.

The from early warning to early actiontheme will discuss available options tackle the climate security risks from both the perspectives of climate action and from the perspective of conflict prevention, harnessing and strengthening relevant early warning systems. Building on the Paris Agreement's goals of tackling the causes and managing the impacts of climate change, the participants will explore ways to enhance the climate sensitivity of the current actions in the domains of stabilisation, security and sustainable development. The aim is to identify positive models of whole-of-government approaches to tackling the climate-security nexus and reinforce the ever more pressing case for cooperation between countries for lasting positive outcomes to be achieved.

[This article originally appeared on www.planetarysecurityinitiative.org]