In the past months we have regularly published Interviews with experts recorded at the 4th Planetary Security Conference on 19-20 February in the Hague. With a variety of expertise, topics such as the Lake Chad Crisis, Nature-based solutions, urbanization and peace-building where discussed. This article collects all interviews at one spot and provides short abstracts

This week climate-related security issues were prominently discussed in Brussels. Luxembourg Minister of Defense François Bausch addressed the topic in a meeting with his counterparts in the Foreign Affairs Council. This Council, which is composed of Ministers from EU Member States, brought together Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense in a so-called joined session format. They were joined by their counterparts from the G5 Sahel and its Secretary General. The EU reiterated its commitment to the region and its willingness to increase its engagement in the future.

Following the presentation of a ‘roadmap to the UN Climate Summit’ by General Assembly President Maria Espinosa in March, we presented an outline of key dates and events for the climate-security nexus, in what has the potential to be a ‘tipping point’ year for the agenda. We regularly update the events on this website. Please read on for the upcoming key events in 2019

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shocked the Arctic Council on Monday, with strong words for China, Russia and Canada – in a forum usually reserved for cooperation and relative goodwill. For the first time in its history, no joint declaration could be agreed. While the US position on climate change was central to the final disagreement, recent events show there are deeper roots to the geopolitical tension that is increasingly defining Arctic diplomacy.

In September the United Kingdom will take on co-leadership on resilience and adaptation at the UN Climate Action Summit. They also submitted a bid to host COP26 in 2020 and pledged £5.8 billion on climate finance between 2016 and 2020 exhibiting an increasing national commitment to tackle climate change. Yesterday UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt spoke in Nigeria as part of a 5 day Africa trip and addressed among others the role of climate change in instability and conflict

On the 29th April, the 8517th meeting of the UN Security Council took place. Discussing the Situation in the Middle East (the question of Palestine) EcoPeace Middle East briefed the delegates on the climate security situation in the region. The Jordanian Director of EcoPeace, Yana Abu Taleb, used ‘hope’ to describe the experience in New York –a word rarely heard in the Security Council, as a journalist pointed out.

On the 2nd April 2019 Sigrid Kaag, Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, participated in the High-level event "Food and agriculture in times of crisis" of the Global Network against Food Crises in Brussels. In the past three years hunger has been on the rise after decades of decline. With almost a billion people suffering from hunger, the Global Report on Food Crises, launched early April 2019 highlights conflicts and climate change effects as major factors.

In March the the fourth UN Environment Assembly took place in Nairobi, Kenya. At the same time the sixth edition of UN Environment’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO6) was published under the theme “healthy planet, healthy people”. GEO6 assesses scientific research, analyses environmental policies, and aims to help policymakers and the public identify priority actions to achieve sustainable development. In a blog published by the Conflict and Environment Observatory, Doug Weir and Leonie Nimmo analyze the report specifically focusing on the nexus between conflict and the environment.