Note: A complete summary of today’s Security Council meeting on climate and security in Africa will be available on Thursday, 13 October.
Briefings
MARTHA AMA AKYAA POBEE, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said that although there is no direct link between climate change and conflict, climate change exacerbates existing risks and creates new ones. Africa, the continent with the lowest total greenhouse gas emissions, is seeing temperatures rising faster than the global average. It lies at the front lines of the unfolding crisis, she emphasized. From Dakar to Djibouti, desertification and land degradation are driving competition for resources and eroding livelihoods and food security for millions. In the Greater Horn of Africa, a devastating drought is forcing families to move far from their homes. In the Sahel, conflict over resources is intensifying. Extremists are exploiting these for their own ends, she noted.
“To support the African content in addressing the impact of climate change on peace and security, we need to act on multiple fronts. We can no longer afford to do business as usual,” she said. Ambitious climate action and accelerated implementation of the Paris Agreement are needed, she said, voicing hope that the twenty-seventh Conference of Parties on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will see meaningful commitments from the largest emitters. “We cannot hope to achieve lasting peace if we do not meet our climate goals,” she added. Underscoring additional priorities for action, she said there is need to increase capacity for risk analysis and to integrate a climate lens into conflict prevention peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts. With the help of innovation partners, the United Nations is tapping into new tools to better understand climate projections and trends to reinforce its analytical and early warning capacity. In that connection, the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel is expanding its capacity to advise partners on conflict-sensitive climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. The Peacebuilding Fund is increasingly adopting a climate lens, having invested over $85 million in more than 40 climate-sensitive projects since 2017.
Also needed are multidimensional partnerships that connect the work of the United Nations, regional organizations, Member States, international financial institutions, civil society, the private sector and international and local researchers, she said. Within its own system, the United Nations has established the Climate Security Mechanism, a joint initiative between the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the Department of Peace Operations, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to address climate, peace and security risks more systematically. She called on Member States to work together in new and unprecedented ways, with the guidance of affected countries and Africa’s leadership. “Our response does not match the magnitude of the challenge we are facing. Let us move faster,” she said, urging more partnerships and collaboration at all levels.
TANGUY GAHOUMA, Former Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, said that the speed at which climate change is accelerating represents a challenge and a threat for the 54 countries in Africa. Moreover, Africa is the continent most plagued by instability and war, he said, citing a 2021 study by the Institute of Security Studies which observed that 80 per cent of the countries where peacekeeping forces are deployed — such as Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia — are most sensitive to climate change. Further, by 2050, climate change will amplify by 10 to 20 per cent the number of people suffering from hunger, he said, adding that climate change and related disasters expose the vulnerability of an entire system and threatens lives and livelihoods, especially in conflict zones. “It is leaving the already vulnerable on the front line of multiple and intersecting crises,” he said.
Nonetheless, Africa could be a powerhouse, with its abundant natural resources and young population, eager to lift themselves out of poverty into the middle class, he continued. Hopeful initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area could lead to the continent’s gradual integration into globalization. He called for a strengthened partnership between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council to tackle the climate, peace and security nexus through a focus on early warning, peacekeeping, good governance and protection of human rights. Noting that climate change impacts face no borders, he called for an integrated response that prioritizes adaptation and climate finance. He recommended the development of a climate risk assessment study, integrated integrate post-conflict reconstruction with a security risk dimension, fostering coordinated responses to cross-border threats and developing African priorities pertaining to climate finance and adaptation ahead of the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
PATRICK YOUSSEF, Regional Director for Africa, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said that today, the ICRC works closely with communities in Africa for whom the convergence of climate risk, environmental degradation and armed conflict is not an abstraction, but a reality. However, those who are best equipped to provide climate finance and who can support climate adaptation are largely absent due to security risks. Detailing the ICRC’s work on the continent, he said that in several countries in the Sahel, it helps farmers and herders cope with increasingly variable rainfall and periods of water scarcity. In Burkina Faso, Central African Republic and Sudan, it provides solar-powered water pumps and high-yielding drought-resistant seeds, and trains women’s groups in year-round greenhouse agricultural production. In Mali, the ICRC focuses not just on structures, but also on information so that reliable climate and weather data reaches those who need it, namely the 80 per cent of the population that depends on rain-fed farming and grazing. In Niger, where conflict is forcing both host and displaced communities together in areas with scarce resources, the ICRC is designing an irrigation, agroforestry and agropastoralism program aimed at strengthening livelihoods and reversing environmental degradation, he said.
While front-line humanitarian action is a vital stabilizing factor in fragmented environments, humanitarians are not peacemakers and cannot respond alone to many challenges on the path to achieving sustainable peace, he said. The Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council are international bodies which can design responses to armed conflict that are climate sensitive. To address growing climate risks in conflict settings, context-specific responses must consider people’s individual needs and characteristics. The international community must share knowledge and align experiences, he said, adding that the Council can do its part with more regular and systematic discussions, including with regional and subregional organizations. Humanitarian organizations can help other actors bring a conflict-sensitive lens to their work and address some of the risks which limit their actions. Moreover, greater respect for international humanitarian law can limit environmental degradation, thus reducing the harm and the risks that conflict-affected communities can endure, including the effects of climate change, he said.
Without decisive support from the international community, what is happening now in many places in Africa will only get worse and existing vulnerabilities will multiply, he continued. “Building resilient communities alongside efforts to protect those communities from violence is critical,” he said, calling for increased resources to adaptation efforts, especially for countries experiencing armed conflict.
Source: UN Security Council