EU-UNEP: Climate Change and Security Partnership (Phase II)

Context

Climate change and environmental degradation are increasingly recognised as drivers of fragility, insecurity and displacement, particularly in regions already affected by conflict or weak governance. Their effects — ranging from resource scarcity to food insecurity and forced migration—can exacerbate existing tensions and overwhelm the coping capacities of communities and states. 

Established in 2017, the EU-UNEP Partnership on Climate Change, Environment, Peace & Security aims to support fragile and crisis-affected regions, countries and communities to identify environment and climate-related security risks at the community, national and global levels, and to programme effective risk reduction and response measures, with a focus on nature-based solutions. 

In its first phase (2017-2022), with pilot interventions in North Darfur (Sudan) and Western Nepal, the partnership delivered global, national, and local analysis of climate-security risks, successfully tested integrated programming approaches to resilience-building in conflict-affected and fragile settings and strengthened institutional capacities to address climate-related security risks through training, and technical support. Phase 2 (2022-2027) expands Phase 1 approaches to new regions and aims to address critical gaps in data and capacity for analysis, policy formulation and intervention design in order to help scale preventive action on climate-related security risks to the transboundary and regional levels, where critical ecosystems are shared by communities and States.

Overall objective

This project aims to support partners at community, state and regional levels to build resilience to the impacts of climate change on transboundary peace and security dynamics.

Specific objectives

• To foster local tools and solutions by providing capacity-building and technical assistance to communities for locally owned, science-based, conflict-sensitive climate adaptation.
• To connect practitioners within and across regions through platforms that build communities of practice and foster cooperation between local and regional actors.
• To close the policy–practice loop by supporting evidence-based decision-making, documenting and sharing good practices and lessons learnt on integrated action for climate, peace and security.
• To address gaps in data and institutional capacity for analysis, policy formulation, and intervention design, particularly focusing on transboundary climate-security linkages in vulnerable regions.

Concrete activities

1. Action 1 (Climate adaptation as a tool for peacebuilding):

• Strengthen community resilience to climate-related risks in Côte d’Ivoire through Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and integration of climate risks into sub-national planning.
• Support resilience-building interventions and inter-communal dialogue in Abyei (Horn of Africa) and Lebanon, including livelihoods and food security initiatives, in partnership with UN peacekeeping and political missions.
• Restore and protect forest ecosystems and integrate local, national, and regional climate adaptation interventions in northern Lebanon (Akkar).

2. Action 2 (Climate adaptation as a tool for conflict prevention):

• Equip local communities in selected target countries with the tools for planning and anticipation, and support implementation of contextually appropriate solutions for climate adaptation, inclusive natural resource governance, consensus-building dialogue processes, and technological innovations. This also includes a sub-granting mechanism run through UNEP’s regional partners.
• Support beneficiary communities to engage with each other within and across regions by establishing or facilitating platforms to discuss common challenges, exchange experiences and identify opportunities for cooperation.
• Connect these networks to political processes and policy mechanisms, ensuring that local perspectives and experiences on effective solutions feed into decision-making at national, regional and global levels.

3. Capacity-building and training:

• Open Online Course for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers on the links between climate change, peace, security, and social/gender inclusion.
• Knowledge Hub on Locally Led Action for Climate, Peace and Security (CPS) which provides practitioners with an Action Toolkit for self-guided capacity-building, including a training package for local actors to undertake conflict-sensitive climate adaptation initiatives.

Expected resuts

• Communities in targeted regions demonstrate increased resilience to climate-related risks affecting peace and stability.
• Strengthened regional cooperation and integration of local solutions into national and regional policymaking.
• Enhanced knowledge, technical capacity, and implementation of evidence-based interventions at local and regional levels.

Expected achievements

• Widespread adoption of locally-led CPS solutions across pilot regions, with a focus on NBS.
• Documentation and sharing of best practices, lessons learnt, and evidence-based approaches to inform future programming.
• Establishment of the Knowledge Hub, hosting tools, guidance, and resources for locally-led CPS action, including self-guided training packages and an Asset Flowchart for resource navigation.