Sixteen years after the first United Brief Points Nations Security Council debate on climate change and security, there is still no agreement on how the Council should engage with the issue. A major reason for the stalemate is enduring claims by a minority of Council members that there is little scientific foundation for connecting climate change with security concerns. Countering this view, we show that the scientific literature offers ample evidence that climate change can constitute a real threat to international peace and security.

South Sudan is home to one of the world’s worst hunger crises. Approximately 8.3 million people, or over 70 per cent of the population, face severe food insecurity. This food insecurity is an outcome of multiple compounding factors but violent conflict is a primary driver. Violent conflict has ravaged South Sudan since its independence from Sudan in 2011. A civil war was fought in 2013–2018, mainly along ethnic lines but driven by a desire to control the country’s oil wealth.

Introduction

Ethiopia is in the midst of one of its most severe droughts in the last forty years. Soaring temperatures, coupled with six consecutive seasons of failed rains, have given rise to extreme drought conditions, with the situation worsening over the last few months.

Central Asia faces acute water shortages. In order to address these more effectively water sharing arrangements that are based on the Soviet era agreements need to incorporate the impacts of climate change and changing water politics in Afghanistan, which could further exacerbate existing tensions in the region.

This week, the EU adopted a new strategy laying out how the EU will address the growing impact of climate change and environmental degradation in the fields of peace, security, and defence. The document, which is officially called a Joint Communication was adopted by the EU executive arm and diplomatic service, the European Commission and European External Action Service.

The effects of climate change play out very differently in various contexts. Depending on the prevailing social, economic, and political conditions, as well as other key influential factors, some places and communities are more or less likely to see their security and living conditions severely affected by adverse climatic conditions.

On 13 June, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a ministerial-level open debate on climate change, peace and security—the latest in a series of UNSC meetings on the topic. While many ministerial statements focused on the nexus of climate change, instability, and conflict, the conversation underscored how today’s competitive geop

Research in 2020 found that 12 out of the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change were also affected by conflict.

The energy crisis has sparked a rethink of how Europe defines and prioritises its energy security. The strategic importance of energy and its interconnected nature at physical, political and trade levels makes the interaction between energy security, security and foreign policy inevitable. Russia using energy as a weapon and the repositioning of Europe in a world of great power competition, where climate impacts increasingly hit, has changed energy interests and how they relate to security.