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21st Century Diplomacy: Foreign Policy Is Climate Policy

  • Lead Editors: Alexander Carius (adelphi), Noah Gordon (adelphi)
  • Lauren Risi (Wilson Center)
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For too long, foreign policymakers have largely left climate issues to energy or environment ministries. A new essay series by adelphi and the Wilson Center seeks to change that.

As some of the world’s top diplomats gathered virtually for the UN General Assembly, adelphi and the Wilson Center launched a new project to help foreign policy actors prepare for a new global context amid a changing climate. 21st Century Diplomacy: Foreign Policy Is Climate Policy is a series of essays, interviews, and op-eds on some of the major climate and foreign policy issues facing the world today:
 

 

The motivation is simple: to date, foreign policy responses to climate change have mainly focused on the security implications of climate change, international treaty negotiations, and the promotion of renewable energy. However, the implications of climate change for foreign policy are much broader, which is why the project team seeks to provide fresh input to drive transformative change. Because foreign policy is climate policy.

Global Outlook, Global Team

The diverse, high-level group of contributors includes Wolfgang Ischinger, Helga Maria Schmid, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Wang Huiyao, Oliver Morton, Selwin Hart, and Vanessa Nakate, among others. Readers can find all the contributions on the 21st Century Diplomacy website as well as in select publications such as Project Syndicate and Der Tagesspiegel.

Making an Impact

This project is directed not at the energy and climate community but at the foreign policy community more generally. In this regard it fits with adelphi’s mission to improve global governance through research, dialogue, and consultation. For if we are to meet the climate challenge, we must mobilize all levels and arms of government.

Download the full report here.

 

WATCH

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How can the foreign policy community harness the transformative power of the new leadership coalitions that have emerged to strengthen the UNFCCC process—an indispensable mode of diplomacy?

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