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Synthesis: Climate Security in 3D

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During the three interactive discussions, participants explored opportunities and challenges of cross-border, cross-government, and cross-sector cooperation and set out concrete areas for priority action. The focus on entry points lead to manifold recommendations for action across the 3Ds.

The most relevant include:

  1. The value of cross-government climate and security ‘communities of practice’ or joint committees to share learnings, skills, and experiences to address climate security risks.
  2. Comprehensive analysis, early warning, and early action require access to climate data and an understanding of how to access and include climate data into existing tools and analysis alongside conflict, development, and humanitarian data.
  3. Even with high quality early warning data, there is a need to prioritise and enable early action to reduce risks based on early warning information. This calls for a political paradigm shift towards increased investment in prevention. Investments in education and sustainable livelihoods are central here, given that prosperity is a key element for resilience to climate change and conflict shocks.
  4. The need for more geographically specific, contextual, and evidence-based recommendations which can offer more nuanced language on climate security at the international and multilateral level. Investing in locally led research and expertise in all activities and solutions is key.
  5. Establishing a multilateral space or ‘coalition of the willing’ member states for climate and security. Here, bilateral diplomatic ties should be leveraged as a means for climate security champions to bring around potentially recalcitrant states.
  6. Move the debate from the need to justify causal linkages between climate change and security towards a solutions-oriented discourse to priorities ‘do no harm’ and ‘no regrets’ options. This would enable climate action to advance alongside sustainable peace and vice versa.

To discover all 26 policy recommendations for actors across and within the 3Ds working on climate security, please download the Synthesis paper here.

Download the event summary here.

FURTHER READING – Addressing Climate-related Security Risks: Towards a Programme for Action

In March 2021, Weathering Risk and the UK government supported the three-part Climate Security in 3D event series organised by Wilton Park and adelphi, bringing together international and multilateral partners from across ‘the 3Ds’: diplomacy, development and defence. This policy paper responds to the development-focused session and offers bilateral and multilateral development agencies a path towards action. Following the event, supplementary information was gathered through desk-based research and 12 interviews with climate and conflict advisers in relevant governments and donor organisations.