Environmental challenges have become an important issue of global governance since at least the first Earth summit organized by the United Nations in 1972. During the last years, we are observing an acceleration of both global warming effects and initiatives to limit the climate crisis, which is increasingly posing risks to international peace and security. The fight against climate change is a longstanding one, but three critical events took place this year that show a will to engage this challenge on a global stage:
- At the beginning of 2021, newly elected US president Joe Biden re-joined the Paris agreement.
- In November 2020, the European External Action Service, together with the EU Commission and the European Defence Agency, presented a “Climate change and Defence roadmap”, approved by the EU Commission in January 2021. It confirms the determination of the EU to be a role model and an involved partner to face this crucial issue.
- In June 2021, NATO adopted a Climate change and security action plan during its summit in Brussels.
To help safeguard international security and stability, the European Union needs to connect climate change policies with crisis prevention and peacebuilding approaches and integrate these efforts into existing regional and sectoral policies. Climate change will also affect our armed forces, implying new stakes and missions. To this end, current course on “Climate change and security” increases participants’ understanding of : global climate change scenarios and the risks these imply for peace and international security ; key international and European actors, policies and critical debates in the climate change and security context ; the concepts of compound climate-fragility risks and integrated action for resilience-building, how they link to conflict prevention, and what this implies for EU external action, peace operations and CSDP operations ; the adaptation of our armed forces to climate change, with new missions and a greener defence model ; climate-fragility risks with a case study ; and how to account for climate-fragility risks in the day-to-day work of EU and Member states’ institutions and services.
