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Tag Archives: West Africa
UN Security Council Statement on Climate and Security in Africa
On January 30, the UN Security Council (UNSC) took another step forward in substantively addressing the security implications of climate change. The Presidential Statement, which builds on a series of recent actions by the UNSC (including a resolution last April on climate and security in the Lake Chad region and an Arria Dialogue in December on climate and security that featured the Center for Climate and Security’s Responsibility to Prepare framework) addresses the intersection of climate change and stability across West Africa and the Sahel – a wide swathe of the African continent that includes 26 countries. (more…)
“The securitisation of climate change in the European Union”
In the OECD’s recent report “Global Security Risks and West Africa: Development Challenges,” there is a very interesting chapter by Rodrigues De Brito devoted to exploring the implications of the “securitisation” of climate change in the European Union. After examining the literature on the subject, which ranges from “climate change is a major security issue” to “we should never treat climate change as a security issue!” De Brito comes to the conclusion that the conceptualization of climate change as a security issue has been beneficial for EU policy on mitigating and adapting to climate change. (more…)
Mali: Migration, Militias, Coups and Climate Change
This blog also appeared on the humanitarian news site, AlertNet.
The world is suddenly paying attention to the oft-ignored North African country of Mali, as it is racked by its most recent in a long string of crises: a coup d’etat. This political and constitutional crisis sits atop an already extremely vulnerable situation – a volatile mix of climate change, drought, food shortages, migration and immobility, armed insurrection and heavy weapons proliferation that threaten to plunge the country into a state of instability not unlike Somalia. As the international community, including the UN Security Council, moves to act on this crisis, it will be important to consider all the identifiable sources of Mali’s insecurity in order to get the solutions right. (more…)