• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Guest Contributor  //  Uncharted Territory

    To Address Climate Risks, Advance Climate Security in the United Nations

    December 4, 2019 By Malin Mobjörk & Karolina Eklöw

    Mobjork-e1575315017782Climate change is widely recognised as one of the major forces shaping the future. Climate impacts illustrate in stark clarity how human actions fundamentally affect the basic physical processes of the planet with vast and, in the worst cases, disastrous consequences for communities around the world. Given these profound impacts, climate change is increasingly treated as a security risk. As a changing climate is causing and will continue to cause diverse impacts across the globe, the associated security challenges are multifaceted. They involve human, community, state, and international security risks, and will require responses across all levels of decision-making, from the local to international.

    Mobjork

    “Uncharted Territory” is a special series hosted by New Security Beat in celebration of the Environmental Change & Security Program’s 25th anniversary. In the series, a diverse group of ECSP partners spotlight emerging trends, innovative research, and new insights at the intersection of environment, health, and security. How we apply the lessons learned from the last 25 years to the decisions that we face today will determine what our world looks like in 2044.

    Climate change is widely recognised as one of the major forces shaping the future. Climate impacts illustrate in stark clarity how human actions fundamentally affect the basic physical processes of the planet with vast and, in the worst cases, disastrous consequences for communities around the world. Given these profound impacts, climate change is increasingly treated as a security risk. As a changing climate is causing and will continue to cause diverse impacts across the globe, the associated security challenges are multifaceted. They involve human, community, state, and international security risks, and will require responses across all levels of decision-making, from the local to international.

    Over the past decades, climate-related security risks have increasingly influenced policymaking in divergent areas. The most detrimental climate impacts are currently felt in societies affected by conflict and weak governance. While the debate continues on the precise mechanisms linking climate change to violent conflict, the fact remains that many peace operations are located in areas with high exposure to climate change. This fact illustrates the intersection of challenges, and points to a need to integrate climate risks into peacebuilding efforts and conflict-sensitivity into climate responses. In the United Nations (UN), the UN Security Council has a mandate for maintaining peace and security. So how is the UN Security Council developing its responses to security risks posed by climate change?

    Over the last decade, the UN Security Council has gradually incorporated climate change into its agenda, despite skepticism from some member states. While a presidential statement called for “contextual information” on the potential security implications of climate change in 2011, it was 2017 before a concrete step was taken with the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2349 on the Lake Chad Basin. In the resolution, the Security Council recognizes that climate change is shaping the peace and security landscape in the region, and that there is a need for adequate risk assessment and risk management strategies. Thereafter, a handful of UN Security Council Resolutions have repeated these statements, incentivising the UN system to develop the capacity to deliver such risk assessments.

    Some modest institutional changes have also taken place. To begin strengthening the capacity to assess climate-related risks, a Climate Security Mechanism was established in October 2018, and is hosted by the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs with staff support from the UN Development Programme and the UN Environment Programme. Simultaneously, proactive UN member states have worked with like-minded states to create a Group of Friends on climate security, providing a locus for advocacy of the climate security agenda in the broader UN system.

    Progress in the Security Council has served as a strategic confidence-building process for climate security across the UN system, but to adequately address climate risks, more work is needed. Through our research at SIPRI, we identified three priority areas for future action. The first step is for the UN to deliver results in the field. By working through existing entry points, climate impacts and vulnerability should be integrated into existing risk assessments and risk management strategies. Most of this work is preventive, which includes early warning, adaptation, mitigation and mediation, and ultimately serves to strengthen human security.

    Second, leverage the Climate Security Mechanism to act as a broker between the UN system and the research community. Knowledge on how, when, and why climate-related security risks arise is developing rapidly in research and policy. Collaboration across different domains will enable the identification of efficient and effective responses. To tailor adequate responses, the analyses need to be context-based and encompass system complexities. This will require research informed policy innovation that the Climate Security Mechanism is well-placed to facilitate.

    Third, integrate climate security into existing funds that focus on, for instance, climate adaptation and mitigation, peacebuilding, and disaster risk reduction. The systemic character of climate-related security risks makes financing a challenge. Funding is often siloed, which hinders integrated responses.

    Committed actors and long-term investments will be required to ensure the feasibility of each step. The recent developments in the UN system demonstrates that collaboration among dedicated member states can have an impact—despite opposition from some—on processes of institutional change. With escalating climate impacts, the mitigation of climate-related security risks by the UN and member states is not only demanded and feasible, but urgent.

    Malin Mobjörk, PhD, is a senior researcher and the Director of the Climate Change and Risk programme at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

    Karolina Eklöw, is a research assistant in the Climate Change and Risk programme at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

    Sources: Security Council Report, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, WIREs Climate Change

    Photo Credit: Photo via Shutterstock. All rights reserved.

    Topics: climate change, environment, environmental security, featured, Guest Contributor, international environmental governance, security, UN, Uncharted Territory

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • Rainforest destruction. Gold mining place in Guyana China’s Growing Environmental Footprint in the Caribbean
    ZingaZingaZingazoomzoom: US cleans up. China runs wild on free rein- A lack of international compliance mechanisms to hold...
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous souhaitons que le partenaire nous apporte son soutien technique et financier.
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous sommes une organisation féminine dénommée: Actions Communautaires pour le Développement de...

Related Stories

  • Ivory Crush, June 19, 2015 Times Square, NYCTaking Action to Address Wildlife Crime’s Environmental, Health, and Security Risks
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000