A recently published Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet examines the convergence of climate change and violent conflict, which has undermined livelihoods and security in Somalia. It offers a range of recommended actions for the international community to address these issues effectively.

Somalia is grappling with the severe impact of climate change, including its worst drought on record from 2021 to 2023, displacement of people, and potential famine. This Fact Sheet outlines four pathways linking climate change to peace and security issues:

The following text is an update published on the website of the Council on Strategic Risks on the 14th of September.

On October 6 the Berlin Climate Security Conference (BCSC) will take place in Germany. The event, which is organized by the German Federal Foreign Office and the German think-tank adelphi, serves as a meeting ground for policy makers, decision makers, (climate) scientists and other important stakeholders. Its aim is to promote, coordinate and advance concrete climate security approaches and initiatives to drive action and implementation efforts.

The following text features the introduction and executive summary of a report published this September by the Council on Strategic Risks' (CSR) Center for Climate & Security. It was authored by Robert Bentley, Lily Boland, Michael R. Zarfos, and Andrea Rezzonico, and edited by Erin Sikorsky and Francesco Femia. 

Earlier this month, a new website was launched by the Cascade institute, a Canadian research centre focused on emerging global crises. Polycrisis.org aims to serve as an information hub and resource library for the field of polycrises.

In a new report for The Clingendael Institute and The Planetary Security Initiative, Tobias von Lossow and Annabelle Houdret offer five action areas for thinking beyond traditional approaches and promoting opportunities for water cooperation in the Middle East. The text below is the executive summary of the report. Read the full report here.

In the Middle-East and North-African region (MENA), the multidimensional profile of prevalent crises requires a way of thinking about development that goes beyond the conventional approach. In an article for UNDP, Kishan Khoday explains how a climate security perspective makes the shift to new pathways and aims for a systemic impact. We should move from extractive oriented development to risk-informed solutions which acknowledge the key roles of the socio-ecological context.

The following text is a summary of a report commissioned by the Nordic Working Group for Environment and Economy (NME) and the Nordic Working Group for Climate and Air (NKL) under the Nordic Council of Ministers. This council is the official body for intergovernmental cooperation in the Nordic Region. Find the full report here.

The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) has recently begun a project in tracking Military Responses to Climate Hazards (MiRCH). It seeks to catalogue and map out military deployments by tracking their date, location, the actors involved, and circumstance of their deployment. The map currently displays deployments from June 2022 to the 1st of August 2023

In Somalia, climate-induced shocks have affected an estimated 8.2 million people (or over 50% of population), including 6.6 million with critical food insecurity conditions. Due to a lack of formal instruments and limited coordination capacities, government adaptation plans haven’t been implemented successfully. According to Mohamed Mire, a research consultant at the Juba Institute for Climate Adaptation, Somalia urgently needs to strengthen its planning and coordination capacities.