Knowledge Management and Outreach
Reaching Out to Key Players
An appropriate response to climate change requires an international network of strong partnerships with developing countries and emerging economies. While many of the most significant climate policy challenges occur on the global stage, the key to adequate action in each region is to understand trends and responses to threats at lower levels. The consequences of extreme weather events, floods and droughts, for example, have the greatest impact at the local level, thus requiring knowledge sharing, open debate and reflection with decision-makers, and wide engagement with a well-informed public.
Since early 2011, the German Federal Foreign Office and adelphi have been engaging with diverse societal actors through a variety of foreign policy approaches. The comprehensive Climate Diplomacy platform, public exhibitions, and bilateral discussions through innovative projects have contributed not only to a better understanding of the characteristics of impacts in each region, but also to the establishment of dialogue between actors with different perspectives on climate diplomacy.
Knowledge Platform
The website www.climate-diplomacy.org comprises information on all of our activities related to climate diplomacy, including electronic versions of all reports, briefs and documentation. The Climate Diplomacy information platform facilitates information exchange by creating networks among stakeholders from environmental, foreign and security, development, and economic policy communities worldwide. It serves as an integrated knowledge hub with diverse thematic approaches and material for policy-makers. It includes a bi-monthly newsletter with over 5,000 subscribers - subscribe here.
The platform has been redesigned and relaunched in February 2021 as a response to changes in the fields of climate diplomacy and foreign policy, and to better reflect the needs and interests of our visitors. The new platform now incorporates all our information products – blog, publication library, videos and podcasts, events, project pages, as well as the Factbook and Exhibition – under one umbrella.
The platform’s rich audio-visual offers include infographics and podcasts as well as many video interviews with distinguished experts and decision-makers that were conducted during international events convened or attended by the Climate Diplomacy Initiative, such as the Berlin Climate and Security Conference, the Planetary Security Conference or the Green Central Asia Conference.
COMMUNICATING COMPLEXITY TO TARGET GROUPS
The Exhibition on Environment, Conflict and Cooperation brings the basics on key issues to the wider public
The Exhibition on Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (ECC) is a powerful tool for bringing attention to the central issues around climate change, environmental degradation, climate-induced insecurity and cooperation opportunities. We designed it to convey fundamental information to the broader public such as students with less knowledge about climate issues and its regional and sector-specific impacts.
The ECC Exhibition has been shown around the world, including in Brazil, China, India and South Africa, and features different regional and thematic foci to link the topic to the experiences of the respective visitors. It has also toured across Eastern and Western Europe, including over 20 German cities, and been shown in different contexts such as embassies, universities and international conferences. It is available in English, Spanish and French – and also virtually, for all those who may not be able to visit the physical version.
The Factbook brings complex case studies on environmental conflicts to advanced users
The Factbook offers deep insights into climate- and environment-induced conflict and cooperation case studies from around the world. Integrating different data sources, it analyses how both environmental and social drivers cascade into fragility and conflict risks, but also what entry points for cooperation exist and/or have been leveraged for peacebuilding.
The case studies provide comprehensive contextual knowledge on environment-related conflicts and cooperation opportunities and are designed to provide evidence-based information for academics, diplomats and field practitioners. In each case study, a conceptual model visualises how environmental change is connected to a conflict or other situation of fragility. It does so by specifying the main mechanisms and intermediate states that link them together.