CLIMATE DISPLACEMENT IN THE NEWS
Whether in the United States or Bangladesh, we are at a critical juncture regarding climate change and displacement, and it is important to effectively communicate the issues at stake. Unfortunately, the “mass exodus” remark and the explicit linkage to “security” by multiple speakers during the Security Council session, despite coming from international leaders who are understandably frustrated with global inaction, risks sparking fear amongst the public and even policymakers.
Photo by Amali Tower
At a UN Security Council meeting on conflict-induced food insecurity and the risk of famine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), northeast Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan, WFP Executive Director David Beasley said the the COVID-19 pandemic had compounded widespread food insecurity caused by years of conflict, which now combined with conflict and climate change, meant that “the 270 million people marching toward the brink of starvation need our help more than ever,” adding that 2021 was a “make or break year.”
He urged billionaires and businesses to step up to help save 30 million people at risk of starvation who need $.4.9 billion in aid for one year.
“Worldwide, there are over 2,000 billionaires with a net worth of $8 trillion. In my home country, the USA, there are 12 individuals alone worth $1 trillion.”
“In fact, reports state that three of them made billions upon billions during COVID. I am not opposed to people making money, but humanity is facing the greatest crisis any of us have seen in our lifetimes.”
“It’s time for those who have the most to step up, to help those who have the least in this extraordinary time in world history. To show you truly love your neighbor,” Beasley said. “The world needs you right now and it’s time to do the right thing.”
WFP fears more people may die from hunger, resulting from economic impacts of the pandemic via lockdowns and lost jobs than the virus itself, which has now infected more than 30 million people and killed nearly 1 million people.
WFP warns 20 million are severely food insecure in Yemen and a further 3 million may face starvation due to COVID-19. South Sudan, where a path to peace was hoped, is now facing renewed violence and floods in Jonglei State, and millions are at risk in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and more.
The UN Security Council was briefed on September 17, via videoconference, by the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock and the Director-General of FAO Qu Dongyu, in addition to Beasley, following a “Note by the Secretariat” by Lowcock, required by Security Council resolution 2417, warning of food insecurity, including the risk of famine, as a result of conflict, in these four countries.
The note highlighted that food security has been exacerbated by natural disasters, economic shocks and public health crises, all compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlighted the severe flooding over the last two years in South Sudan that destroyed 11,000 tons of cereals and affected 14 million livestock.
In a briefing on Yemen the previous day, Lowcock signaled frustration over severe funding shortfalls in all four countries. (VOA, CNBC, What’s In Blue)
Pablo Garcia Saldaña via UNSPLASH
The UN, in partnership with Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, launched a USD $3.2 million UN Climate Security Project yesterday as part of the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), and is the first multi-country project of its kind in the region.
The PBF is the UN financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries and regions at risk of conflict or affected by conflict, including that caused by climate change.
The project will provide 24-months of support to assess and begin to address critical climate security challenges faced by these three countries, including displacement and forced migration, resulting from livelihood loss, food security, coastal erosion, increased social tensions linked to shrinking land and tenure, and industries such as fisheries, as well as the ever increasing costs of responding to worsening natural disasters.
In a quest to avert social conflict, the project will focus on tailored climate security assessments, including youth and gender-sensitive discussions and partnerships with key stakeholders. The project will be implemented by UNDP and IOM.
Khaled Khiari, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific from the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations noted that “climate change in the Pacific has the potential to cause a myriad of cascading fragility and instability risks.”
The three country leaders echoed the harrowing climate change challenges each of their countries are facing, all of which are only two meters above sea-level at their highest points.
“This is about our survival, safety and security”
President of the Marshall Islands, H.E. David Kabua
Khiari noted the groundbreaking nature of the project, with which we certainly agree, and demonstrates the significant movement of the conversation of climate change to climate security within the UN security architecture, most notably within the UN Security Council, whose most recent debate on climate security was in July this year, and included a briefing by Pacific representative of the Climate Security Expert Network, covered in this Spotlight. (UNDP, FBC News)
David Hoefler via UNSPLASH
This morning, Niue’s Coral Pasisi, a Pacific representative of the Climate Security Expert Network briefed the UN Security Council on climate issues facing the Pacific, after what she said was a decade of lobbying efforts. Her presentation is part of a ministerial-level open debate with a focus to better understand how climate security issues affect different regions.
Along with Pasisi, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addressed the Security Council, along with a senior official from the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and Colonel Mahamadou Magai of Niger who was expected to focus on the impacts of climate change on food security and conflict in the Sahel, according to the publication What’s In Blue, from the think tank Security Council Report, a publication and NGO we once worked with.
Pasisi says there are “a great many ways we can connect the impacts of climate change to undermining peace and security, the stability of communities, economies and countries in the region.”
Her goal was to focus the Security Council on climate fragility impacts that warrants a security response of intervention before issues turn into conflict, citing maritime boundaries in the Pacific, impacts around the Blue Economy, global competition for fisheries and related food insecurity in fisheries trade, and displacement of the region’s populations.
Pasisi says people are already being displaced internally and across borders as a result of climate change, with forced displacements occurring within often highly contested land, presenting an additional challenge, especially since there are no existing legal or policy arrangements to protect resources or maritime jurisdictions. (RNZ)
What’s In Blue reported that Germany, president of the Security Council this month, co-sponsored the meeting with nine other Council members. In addition to Council members, several UN member states addressed the Council, representing groups such as the: Alliance of Small Island States, the Nordic Group, Pacific Small Island Developing States, Group of Friends on Climate and Security and Pacific Island Forum. A representative from the EU and Kenya and Ireland, future Council members in 2021-2022 also addressed the Council.
What’s In Blue shared the following questions that were to be examined in a concept note shared amongst Council members ahead of the debate:
How can the Council obtain authoritative information on the impact of climate-related security risks in conflict environments?
What tools, partnerships and early warning capabilities would support the timely assessment of and response to climate-related security risks to prevent the escalation of conflicts?
How can UN in-country resources (including peace operations and special political missions) be enabled to better collect, analyze and report on relevant information in countries and regions in a gender-sensitive manner?
Which current tools can the Council use to address the security implications of climate change and how could these be enhanced to respond appropriately to climate-related security risks?
How can the Council enhance its operational readiness to address such risks?
Climate security remains a controversial topic for the UN Security Council to engage, with China, Russia and the US raising a range of issues that climate change is fundamentally a sustainable development issue, opposing expansion of climate-security language and insistence that other UN agencies are better suited to address the topic.
However, most members seem to support integration of climate-related security risks to examine factors such as drought, food security, water scarcity, desertification as examples that can exacerbate conflict and further support the development of “synergies among the Council and other UN entities in addressing climate-security challenges.”
What’s in Blue reports these countries desire the Council pursue a resolution on climate-security issues, and Germany had drafted a resolution in collaboration with nine other members on June 20, but the negotiations were suspended in early July, as the “political environment in the Council prevented them from pursuing a resolution at the current time.”
Today’s meeting was the Security Council’s fifth thematic debate on climate-security issues. The Council has addressed security impacts related to climate change in 12 resolutions since 2015. (What’s In Blue)
One of these resolutions was focused on climate change impacts in the Lake Chad Basin, which we addressed in our Field Report, “Shrinking Options: The Nexus Between Climate Change, Displacement and Security in the Lake Chad Basin.” Following a trip to the Lake Chad Basin in March 2017, the UN Security Council, in Resolution 2349, recognized the “adverse effects of climate change and ecological changes among other factors on the stability of the region, including through water scarcity, drought, desertification, land degradation, and food insecurity.”
Miami, Florida’s most populous metropolitan area, has long been considered particularly vulnerable to climate change, but this is often limited to considerations of sea-level rise given its position as a low-lying coastal city. Miami’s sea-levels are expected to be 10 to 17 inches (25-43 cm) above 2000 levels, though recent studies have shown the seas are rising faster than expected. While this is undoubtedly a major issue, Miami also faces extreme heat and tropical storms, including hurricanes. Just this year, Miami’s heat index struck new records when temperatures topped 100°F (37.8°C) for 37 consecutive days and 106°F (41.1°C) for 13 days. And while the city has always faced challenges of heat and storms to some extent, climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of these phenomena, with devastating results.
