SIPRI Insights on Peace and Security, No. 2024/03, October 2024

This SIPRI Insights report addresses challenges related to climate finance distribution in conflict-affected countries, where vulnerabilities to climate change are significantly exacerbated. Conflict reduces the ability of populations to adapt, making effective climate finance even more critical.

On 25 October 2024, Australian Defence unveiled its Net Zero Strategy and Future Energy Strategy, designed to take practical action to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Join us for an engaging evening at The Hague Humanity Hub, on November 4 from 17.00 to 19.00 (CET), as we unpack the who, where, what, and why's of climate-related violence. 

The Central African Republic (CAR) is highly exposed to the impacts of climate change due to socioecological vulnerabilities and ongoing insecurity. Drivers of vulnerability include the absence of state authority, natural resource mismanagement, and low household and community resilience.

A changing climate and the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel and the Great Lakes region have driven transhumant pastoralists further into CAR earlier in the transhumance season, creating tensions.

In early October, Clingendael Academy trainers travelled to Nairobi, Kenya, to train the IGAD Climate Security Coordination Mechanism (CSCM) on conflict resolution within the context of climate security. The CSCM includes representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Environment, Defence, and Interior from IGAD member states in the Horn of Africa.

On 8 October 2024, the German Federal Foreign Office, adelphi and Climate Diplomacy organized the sixth edition of the Berlin Climate and Security Conference under the slogan 'How to Secure a Climate for Peace'. The conference focused on exploring the link between climate change, peace and security objectives, and explored innovative ways to assess climate risks and develop early warning systems.

Can Climate and Development Goals Align in Fragile States?

Peacekeeping Missions and Renewable Energy Sources

Colombia’s decades-long conflict culminated in the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which included aims to achieve peace through rural reform, reintegration of former combatants, addressing illicit crop cultivation, and ensuring land restitution and voluntary return for displaced individuals. 

Forging ties that will hold in the future

If there has ever been a country where “build back better” applies to the energy system, it is Ukraine. From a heavily centralised, fossil-dependent energy system, Russian attacks now compel Ukraine to continuously undertake short-term decentralised repairs to its energy infrastructure. In order to join the EU and cut its fossil ties with Russia, Ukraine has started to implement a completely revised, much greener and decentralised energy system as part of its reconstruction efforts. 

Opportunities and limitations

Areas beyond government control constitute a highly diverse subgroup of fragile and conflict-affected settings. As a result of conflict and weak governance, many of these areas have become more vulnerable to climate change. Their communities have been left with limited capacity to respond to changing climatic conditions and extreme weather events. These settings pose unique challenges for external engagement and have, therefore, long been overlooked in adaptation efforts.