Janani Vivekananda

Whilst at first sight it may not seem explicitly so, the new IPCC report contains a lot of important findings on the links between climate change and conflict. They underline and confirm important lessons that have been emerging from recent research: climate change does contribute to increased conflict, but along indirect pathways and via intermediate factors such as governance. Adapting to and mitigating climate change can also play an important role in addressing many drivers of conflict and building peace.

Progress has stalled for the time being on a United Nations Security Council Resolution on climate security. However, a recent communique from the African Union shows how regions affected by climate security risks are stepping in to drive action forward.

Not only is the Sahel highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, but it is also one of the regions where climate change is most likely to undermine security and trigger violent conflict. Now more than ever, climate security risks must be effectively integrated into stabilisation and peace operations in order to achieve stability in the region.

Lake Chad is caught in a conflict trap. Violence between armed opposition groups – including the so-called ‘Islamic State West Africa Province’ and ‘Boko Haram’ – and state security forces has left 10.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Climate change is compounding these challenges. This report identifies key risks and proposes pragmatic solutions to shore up stability in the region.

Last month, the UN Security Council hosted another meeting on climate change. Despite this positive step, in order to really tackle climate-related security risks, the Council needs to be reshaped into a more capable body, as a recent journal article by Conca et al. points out.

As climate change drives more people from rural to urban settings, how will already fragile cities cope? What must be done to ensure that all cities are safe, sustainable places to live?

adelphi was at the Resilient Cities Congress 2017 in Bonn to speak on a panel on ‘Violence and Climate Change in Cities’. The session was a unique and much required discussion on the interactions between climate change and conflict in urban settings.

At the 2017 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development from 3 - 4 May, adelphi, in partnership with SIPRI and SEI, convened two sessions on climate change and fragility risks in the Lake Chad region, to discuss the different approaches and next steps for building resilience.

Cities are already facing the brunt of a range of interacting risks from criminal violence, terrorism and war to demographic pressures, to climate and environmental change.

By joining up action – and funding – on climate change, conflict and poverty, the world’s biggest crises could get easier to manage.

While much of the debate around climate financing focuses on “how much,” an equally important question is “how?”

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.

To advance joint, cross-government, cross-border, and cross-discipline approaches needed to effectively address climate-related security risks and to strengthen the community of practice adelphi and Wilton Park hosted a three-part event series on “Climate Security in 3D: Diplomacy, Development, and Defence.”

The new and unique Weathering Risk Methodology provides decision-makers and practitioners across all sectors with a comprehensive and scalable research approach for climate-related security risks.

The Sahel has been identified as one of the regions where climate change is most likely to undermine security and trigger violent conflict. This factsheet outlines the key climate security risks facing the region, scope for institutional response – with a focus on UN and African Union (AU) peace operations, and priority entry points for action.

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.

This report assesses how peacebuilding programming can produce adaptation benefits, so that interventions simultaneously contribute to reduced intercommunal conflict and strengthened resilience to shocks.

This overview explains why climate change is a matter of concern for international peace and security and how the UN system should deal with climate-related security risks. It poses and answers seven questions.

Exploring the relationship between humanitarian action, conflict, climate and environment has never been more urgent. The prospects for the future show no abatement, with climate change only projected to increase the number and intensity of catastrophes.

Today, the Lake Chad region is best known for armed conflict, Boko Haram and one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. According to Janani Vivekananda, Senior Adviser for Climate Change and Peacebuilding at adelphi, climate change plays a very real role in exacerbating and prolonging the crisis.

This paper maps out the relevance of the SDGs to foreign policy. Taking the six SDGs under review at the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2018 as entry points, we analyse how progress on specific SDGs may support or undermine progress on foreign policy priorities, especially SDG 16: peace.

The Lake Chad region is currently facing multiple security risks, including livelihood insecurity, climate change and violent conflicts. In this report, the Expert Working Group on Climate-Related Security Risks provides a climate-related security risk assessment and options for climate risk management strategies in the Lake Chad region.

This Climate-Fragility profile summarizes the key challenges the Lake Chad region is experiencing as a consequence of the interplay between climate change and fragility.

A new report "Action on Climate and Security Risks: Review of Progress 2017" has just been launched which sums up the progress made on the climate and security nexus in 2017.

Cities are on the sharp end of a range of risks from criminal violence, terrorism and war to demographic pressures, to climate and environmental change. Coastal megacities are especially at risk given the specific impacts of climate change they face, including accelerated global sea-level rise, increased storm frequency and severity, and destruction to critical infrastructure.

“A New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks”, an independent report commissioned by members of the G7, identifies seven compound climate-fragility risks that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies in the decades ahead.

This podcast features Andrew Gilmour, Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation, and Janani Vivekananda, Senior Advisor at adelphi, in an intimate fireside chat. Moderated by renowned mediator and former diplomat Günther Baechler, they discuss why and how climate change and environmental considerations should be an integral part of conflict analysis and peacebuilding processes.