Disasters – from droughts and dust storms to hurricanes and floods – are becoming more frequent and more severe as our planet warms. They bring a high cost to human life, economies, and ecosystems. But how we deal with these disasters is not keeping pace.

Tom Middendorp, former Netherlands Chief of Defence and Clingendael's Senior Associate Fellow, spoke at “Sustainability in Europe: The State of Play”, in the European Parliament in Brussels on October 15, 2019.

The African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) is an open platform for sharing the latest African climate research among researchers, policy makers, practitioners and development partners. The overarching theme of the ACRC is dismantling barriers to urgent climate change adaptation actions.

The First International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding organised by the Environmental Peacebuilding Association will take place at the University of California, Irvine, from October 23-25, 2019. 

This new project was implemented by the FAO and supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands which has contributed $28 million to back FAO's work to boost the resilience of food systems in Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan - part of a new initiative to scale-up resilience-based development work in countries affected by protracted crises.

Development and security cannot do without the other. It is not enough to counter violent extremism by addressing the symptoms; understanding and focusing on root causes, in regions such as the Western Sahel, is essential to countering violent extremism.

Climate change is recognized as a threat multiplier that aggravates non-climate stressors such as population growth, poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions. As such, there is a critical need to understand and address the climate-drivers of conflict. This webinar tackles these issues.

Global warming is impacting the world’s water supply and life cycle in almost every way. The impacts of climate change on water are particularly acute in areas of the world experiencing conflict. As water supplies become more strained in conflict contexts, they are increasingly being exploited and weaponized as strategic targets. Danilo Türk of the Geneva Water Hub and Hamish Young of UNICEF spoke with the Global Observatory about these challenges.

The Arctic has long been considered as an area of low military tension with a potential for sub-regional cooperation, especially in jointly developing energy resources in the High North. Receding polar ice, as a result of climate change, has created even more opportunities in this respect. It also encourages more intensive use of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which is gradually opening up for navigation for ever bigger parts of the year. However, the Arctic region is no longer exempt from broader geopolitical tensions.

To tell the stories of Somali people struggling to cope with a changing environment, photographer and filmmaker Nichole Sobecki released photos and a documentary. She aimed at highlighting the relationship between climate change and conflict by giving voice to Somalis affected by a changing environment.