Climate Security Dialogues
Climate change has emerged as one of the key challenges for global human development. Developments in recent years have shown just a few examples of potential future impacts: Droughts and wild fires from Russia to Australia are reducing crops and driving up food prices across the world, putting millions of people closer to starvation. The flows of rivers and seasons are starting to change, questioning age-old practices of farming and flood management. Sea-level rise will require hundreds of millions of people to adapt, whether via migration or coastal fortifications requiring substantial investment.
These impacts occur in a time of rapid global change: The world is more prosperous and populous than ever before, and demands on its resource accelerate accordingly. The international political landscape continues to transform, with global political and economic powers continuing to shift from the West to elsewhere, while regions such as the Middle East and North Africa experience political upheaval and change. Technology and trade have led the world to unprecedented interconnectedness, turning a disaster anywhere into a crisis felt everywhere.
The Climate Security Dialogues were created as a forum to discuss the impacts of shifting climate in times of political, economic, and demographic transformations. In particular, the Dialogue follows up on the concerns raised by, among others, a United Nations report from Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon on the possible security implications of climate change. Drawing on the best available scientific knowledge and the analysis provided by multiple UN Member States, the report identified that the impacts of climate change may have potential security implications, ranging from the individual level and satisfaction of basic human needs to political turmoil and conflict potentials arising from uncoordinated coping strategies.
Continuing this fruitful linking of political and scientific expertise, the Dialogues aim to identify necessary regional cooperation constellations and measures to minimize threats for development, livelihoods and peace. In particular, it aims to bring together distinguished scientific experts from various regions and policy-makers from Germany and beyond to jointly identify possible actions.
The Climate Security Dialogues Series has been initiated by adelphi in Berlin, the KlimaCampus' Research Group Climate Change and Security (CLISEC) at the University of Hamburg and the Institute for Peace and Security Research Hamburg (IFSH), and are generously supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.