On Wednesday, 8 July 2020 Planetary Security Initiative (PSI) hosted an interactive webinar "Iraq: Climate, water & Conflict in 2020" where we discussed climate and water security in Iraq in 2020 against the current political and security situation. The focus was on what can be done to reverse the situation and finding sustainable solutions on the management of natural resources. Here we summarise the main points of the discussion.

New policy report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) explores how people in Mali, Central African Republic and southern Iraq experience the combined consequences of armed conflict and climate risks, and how they cope and adapt. It also discusses how the ICRC, and the humanitarian sector in general, must adjust and adapt to address these risks.

Iraq is among the most vulnerable countries in the region when it comes to climate change and water scarcity. Over the last two decades, the situation deteriorated dramatically, affecting health and livelihoods in the South. The COVID-19 health crisis, in conjunction with a collapsed oil price, further strains livelihoods and perspectives in the region. Join our webinar on 8 July where we discuss climate & water security in Iraq against the current political and security situation.

The Water, Peace and Security (WPS) Partnership launched an early warning tool to predict conflict over the coming 12 months in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. By employing machine learning, the tool has captured so far 86% of future conflicts, successfully forecasting more than 9 in 10 “ongoing conflicts” and 6 in 10 “emerging conflicts.” Read more about the tool and potential hotspots here.

The Inter collectivité du Sourou developed an Integrated and Sustainable Development Programme (ISDP) that defined concrete actions to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Sourou river plain in Mali. A new policy brief by the Clingendael Institute outlines how the effective decentralization of power was achieved through an inclusive rather than a ‘rubber stamp’ approach.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union kept a significant portion of its nuclear-weapons arsenal in the Arctic. Russia’s inability to effectively deal with this nuclear legacy created the potential for an environmental catastrophe. A new policy brief by the European Leadership Network (ELN) looks into the growing risks of nuclear incidents in the Russian Arctic, and proposes concrete transparency and confidence-building measures to limit them.

The second report in the “Migration, environment and climate change” by IOM explores some of the main ways in which environmental change and migration have been linked to date. In addition to the environmental influences, the report considered critical economic, political, demographic and social factors, such as level of socio-economic development, resource scarcity, governance frameworks, population growth, and urbanisation.

On 19 June, Planetary Security Initiative (PSI) hosted a webinar to discuss climate-security nexus from a military, diplomacy and development perspective. Four experts shared their insights related to ‘climate Interventions and Peace in the age of Covid-19’ and answered the audience questions. Read the highlights and watch the webinar here.

Should the national security of the United States adapt to the twin global emergencies of COVID-19 and climate change? In this article, the author argues that as the dangers of pandemic disease and global warming become definite and present, the U.S. foreign policy establishment is forced to reassess its conventional conceptions of national security.

The impact of climate change on coastal cities has increased in recent years. As a result, livelihoods of the residents of these cities are under high-pressure. Governments and financial institutions need a localised risk information tool to help them safeguard residents and their livelihoods where there are only limited resources to use. The Climate and Ocean Risk Vulnerability Index (CORVI) is developed by Stimson Center to meet the growing need for a developed risk assessment tool.