Statement at the Arria-Formula Meeting on Climate, Peace and Security: Opportunities for the Peace and Security Architecture

I thank my colleague, Mona Juul, Permanent Representative of Norway with whom I have co-chaired the Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security.

I thank all our panelists for contributing their expertise and passion to our conversation this afternoon.

I also thank all delegations for participating as we end our run, for now, as co-chairs of this important body.

Colleagues,

We are all aware that extreme climate events, some caused by climate change, make conflicts more difficult to resolve even as they produce new drivers and accelerators of fragility.

Our aim today is not to re-litigate our debates at COP-27 on the broader matters of the broad climate change adaptation and mitigation measures to take. We do not seek to securitise climate change. Rather, we are here to open a conversation that should support practical peacebuilding and peacekeeping on the ground. In other words, in taking stock of the interaction between climate, peacebuilding and security, we want to answer the key question: what actions should we take to save lives, and prevent conflict escalation and protraction in the context of environmental and climatic crises as experienced at the national and regional levels.

Colleagues,

We have four recommendations to make on the steps we can take to answer this question:

First, UN-led peace operations in areas experiencing climate change or other environmental crises, must contend with how these impact peace and security. As long as environmental and climatic factors directly worsen conflict, and make it more difficult to forge ceasefires, peace agreements and the other key deliverables of UN missions, then they need addressing. The missions should therefore undertake operational and strategic assessments. If the finding is that these crises are key drivers of insecurity, then the Mission needs to determine the immediate and medium-term actions to mitigate it.

In some instances, this may include environmental initiatives to improve relations between the host community and peacekeeping missions in regions like the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. There may also be ways for the missions to collaborate and coordinate with UN country teams, IFI national and regional offices, and other stakeholders, to meaningfully link climate, environment, peacebuilding and security.

Second, there is going to be significant national and international investment in climate change adaptation and even loss and damage. We recommend that in countries suffering environment-related insecurity and fragility, these investments should be aligned and even directly linked to peacebuilding and political processes to stop violent conflicts.

We also urge that regional organisations and the Peacebuilding Commission be climate- and environment-aware in their programmatic efforts.

Third, we need to build competence in linking climate and the environment to peacebuilding and security. In multiple sectors and stakeholders. From the banks in Washington and their regional counterparts, work on fragility and sustainable development will need to be informed by expertise in linking climate adaptation and environmental protection and recovery to peace and security.

Schools, think tanks, researchers and government policymakers are going to need to undertake a deliberate process of capacity building. This should be inclusive, particularly of the countries most affected and also build on sustainable local and indigenous environmental practices.

Climate, peacebuilding and security as a nexus of practice should build on a new model of inclusion if it is to succeed.

Finally, to generate greater coordination and better information on the ground, enhanced exchanges of knowledge will be needed between various agencies and stakeholders, including tapping into local environmental management expertise that in most instances goes back generations.

A systematic collection of lessons learned, and best practices should be put in place to increase and support an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach as well as encourage the development of joint responses between climate, security and peacebuilding as a critical contributor to the UN peace and security architecture. This is what the notion "Partnering for peace" is all about.

Dear colleagues,

To conclude, I hope that the incoming co-chairs of the Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security will build on this framing of the Climate, Peace and Security concept as well as the opportunities it presents for the UN Peace and Security Architecture. We will continue to champion it in multiple domains.

Thank you.