“Climate change is inextricably linked to some of the most pressing security challenges of our time,” said Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, echoing many permanent and temporary members of the United Nations Security Council. This debate, brought forward under the Swedish Presidency of the Council, aimed at bringing forth the nexus between climate change and security, not only in a context-specific manner like previously acknowledged but for the globe as a whole.

On the 17th of July, the UNCCD will host a Ministerial Side Event as part of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The event will focus on the initiative on Sustainability, Stability and Security (3S) in Africa.

On the 11th of July, the climate-security link will be discussed in a full UNSC session for the first time since 2011. This sessions will be held under the Swedish Presidency to debate on the security risks relating to climate security. The debate is expected to be open and will, therefore, be broadcasted live at UN Web TV.  A key question now is whether progress will be made on the establishment of a so-called institutional home for climate-security at the UN in one form or another.

With the liberation of Mosul from so-called Islamic State (IS) in November 2017, Iraq entered – once again – a post-conflict period. While starting the process of rebuilding the country, Iraq is facing a severe water crisis characterised by acute scarcity, dwindling resources and sharply declining water quality.

On the 28th of June, The UNSC adopted Resolution 2423 which further extended their Malian mission. It is the first time a UN Mission is asked to include the impacts of climate change on the security situation of the country they operate in explicitly in their activities.

Test of Endurance, a new report by the Planetary Security Initiative, warns of increased stress on land systems, just as the African population is set to double by midcentury. It observes that nearly half of the land in sub-Saharan African is steadily degrading, with severe economic impacts. This cost Africa a whopping $10 trillion in economic activity.

Three sessions will be held to further cooperative solutions for ecosystem and freshwater distribution management. Those seminars will bring high-value ecosystems and sustainability security to the forefront of global geopolitics.

Report which assesses to what extent initiatives regarding landscape restoration address migration and security objectives in Africa.

“I have seen 1st hand how climate change drives conflicts in many crisis zones”. Tom Middendorp, former Chief of Defense of the Netherlands Armed Forces, on 27 June addressed in this way the security perspective of the energy transition at the Second Meeting of the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of energy transformation. This aligns with the need to build an englobing and robust assessment of the transformative trend of our age in the energy field, but it is also crucial to acknowledge the evolving geopolitics of that transition.