Mainstreaming Climate-Security Considerations in Recovery Pathways

When climate change interacts with other pressures and stressors, such as economic, political, demographic or environmental concerns, the implications for human suffering, peace and security are profoundly negative. Nowhere is this more detrimental than in countries currently experiencing, recently passing, or at risk of, conflict. Climate change threatens to undue gains made in post conflict contexts or aggravate already violent situations, ensuring humanitarian and political emergencies remain. Actors at various levels, including national, regional, and international, and sectors should then ensure policies, plans, strategies and frameworks put in place to support countries at various stages of a conflict lifecycle are resilient against the possible human and hard security threats posed by climate change.

In support of this objective, adelphi, in collaboration with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), assisted the UNDP SDG-Climate Facility’s “Mainstreaming climate-security considerations in recovery pathways’’ project to support Arab region partners at the national and regional level. The aim of the project was to anticipate and reduce the previously mentioned interconnected risks by integrating climate-security in post-conflict or post crisis recovery policies, stabilisation strategies, plans, and programmes. adelphi developed a set of criteria that helps researchers and policy makers assess the degree to which climate security is integrated into policy processes and outputs. The criteria builds off of the Weather Risk methodology and the Policy Coherence Analysis Tool developed by CGIAR. The second key output was the development of implementation roadmaps that outline a specific set of actions for relevant actors in three country contexts, in addition to a synthesis document outlining general recommendations for the region more broadly.