浪花直播

2015 was a historic year for international commitments to sustainable development, climate change action, and new kinds of peacebuilding. For governments and policymakers, now comes the difficult task of living up to those commitments.

Security concerns, like ISIS and a revanchist Russia, tend to dominate people鈥檚 attention, but less sensational challenges to stability and economic development are piling up as well, threatening to overwhelm humanitarian budgets and prompting governments to .

It鈥檚 important 鈥渢o reform the system so that the urgent鈥oesn鈥檛 displace the important,鈥� said Nick Mabey, founder and chief executive of the environmental consultancy , at the 浪花直播 Center on May 6. We need to create institutions and processes so that policymakers can 鈥渄o the medium- to long-term work while the urgent is being managed.鈥�

The United Nations

鈥淭here鈥檚 no sustainable security without addressing climate and resource issues in future planning,鈥� Mabey said. He pointed to the 鈥�1 in 900 year drought鈥� in the Middle East as a background driver of instability, tensions, social unrest, and regional rivalry.

Yet how exactly governments go about addressing climate and resource issues is unclear, despite periodic attention.

鈥淲hen countries stand for election鈥hey should be challenged to explain what they think the Council鈥檚 role is鈥�

The United Nations Security Council held its  on the impact of climate change on peace and security in 2007. The United Kingdom, Germany, United States, NATO, and European Union later integrated climate change into their respective security strategies and risk assessment processes, said Mabey 鈥� to an extent. 鈥淎wareness was there,鈥� he said, 鈥渟peeches were made, initiatives were launched, strategies were written, but they didn鈥檛 actually land in operations.鈥�

At the United Nations, climate change has been a contentious issue in the Security Council for some time, said Ken Conca, author of . Some have argued that the Framework Convention on Climate Change should be the primary forum for all climate-related discussions. Others, 鈥渨ith a sense of urgency about climate, trying to do some agenda setting, [and trying] to use the鈥ully pulpit foundation of the Security Council,鈥� have pushed the Council to consider the security implications themselves, said Conca.  

Conca said that the importance of having a 鈥渃apable and functional Security Council on the issue of climate change and international conflict鈥� is evident. For example, all but one of the UN peacekeeping missions in the field have experienced an extreme weather event or natural disaster. But the Security Council still does not have 鈥渢he capacity to inform itself in an effective way about the climate change ramifications for its current operations,鈥� he said.

The issue of 鈥渆nvironmental refugees鈥� is also shooting up the priority list, said Conca. 鈥淲hen you start having impacts of conflict on civilians and large numbers of people moving, whether it fits the international definition of refugee as somebody who is fleeing for political reasons鈥r whether it is in the more general category of displaced people who have a very vague status in international law鈥t is certainly something that garners the Council鈥檚 attention.鈥� So far, however, the Council has deferred to the UN High Commission on Refugees on questions of treatment and classification.

Mabey suggested several ways to better integrate environmental factors into foreign policy and security planning at the United Nations. The secretary general has a special envoy on climate change, but he/she must communicate more effectively with the Security Council and the General Assembly, Mabey said. As well, The Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat needs more capacity for risk assessment, especially for analyzing effects on the international system. Finally, Mabey suggested UN-led pilot projects for at-risk regions, such as North Africa, the Mekong, and East Africa, to build large-scale climate change resilience. 

The Pentagon

The United States is making strides in putting climate change on the security agenda and taking a global leadership role, said Sherri Goodman, former deputy undersecretary of defense for environmental security and current 浪花直播 Center public policy fellow.

鈥淲e lack the capacity to build a pipeline of really good adaptations鈥�

President Obama made climate leadership a 鈥渉uge initiative鈥� last year and was very successful, 鈥�, and then with Paris,鈥� she said. Using this platform, the United States is well positioned to identify integrated solutions that 鈥渆xtend beyond national boundaries鈥� and help combat climate change around the world.

The U.S. military has acknowledged the national security and infrastructure risks posed climate change in  and . The secretary of the Navy has made energy his top priority, subsequently leading to the creation of a carrier strike group, the 鈥淕reat Green Fleet,鈥� that has been testing more diverse fuel mixes. A recent  assesses the impact of sea-level rise on 1,774 military installations for three time horizons: 2035, 2065, and 2100. The report finds that, in the most extreme scenario, Antarctic melt will cause sites in the Pacific Ocean, such as those in Hawaii, to experience sea-level rise at a rate 25 to 30 percent higher than the global average.

People are beginning to realize that the combination of sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and extreme weather events 鈥渁re a toxic mix鈥� and must be dealt with now, Goodman said.

Beyond Engineering

鈥淲hat we really need is not to be running these problems through the institutions we have, but challenging these institutions to grow toward where the problem is,鈥� said Conca.

鈥淲hen countries stand for election in the Security Council, or when countries indicate that they would like to be a permanent member in a reformed Security Council,鈥� Conca said, 鈥渢hey should be challenged to explain what they think the Council鈥檚 role is on climate change.鈥� There may not be a right answer at the moment, he said, but governments need to be challenged to start thinking about it.

Mabey said most discussions of climate change and security by governments 鈥� at the G7 and G20 summits last year, or the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 鈥� have tended toward technocratic solutions. These often neglect social and political complexities, which are important to preventing violent conflict. 鈥淭hose bits of resilience that require social responses and governance鈥seem] to be slightly edited out,鈥� he said.

In post-conflict areas, for example, there is a pattern of financing development initiatives focused on economic growth as a stabilization measure. Mabey said, without the capacity to conduct political and social analyses, these economic growth projects can actually backfire,  instead of ameliorating them.

Conca agreed that the environmental issues likely to gain the most attention and funding during conflict are related to infrastructure, such as clean water and energy systems, highlighting the traditional notion of development as an engineering challenge.

鈥淲e lack the capacity to build a pipeline of really good adaptations,鈥� Mabey said, 鈥渆specially ones based on soft skills and community management.鈥�

Mabey suggested focusing on improving engagement between development practitioners and diplomats 鈥� those with an intimate knowledge of the conflict and political context. Conducting conflict analyses prior to appropriating funding for climate change projects will lead to 鈥渢he best, most resilient solution, that builds cooperation,鈥� he said.

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Written by Sreya Panuganti, edited by Schuyler Null.