Geopolitics and the COP
By Scott Moore
Fighting climate change is supposed to be about cooperation for the common good. Or at least that has been the main message of every United Nations climate conference for the past two decades, the latest iteration of which just wrapped up. But high-minded calls to cooperate for the sake of the climate are increasingly running headlong into a hard-nosed reality: growing geopolitical competition between great powers. Unfortunately, geopolitics can make it harder for countries to work together to solve the climate crisis. But if you look carefully, they can also create opportunities to advance climate action.
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Peace and Security at COP29
By Noah Fritzhand and Anna Spear
Introduction
In November, Azerbaijan hosted the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). The event’s start was marked by sharp divisions, including disputes over the agenda, temporary breakdowns in negotiations, a boycott by Papua New Guinea, and criticism of Baku’s conference leadership. Key agenda items included increasing climate finance for poor countries, advancing COP28’s pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, and building resilient food systems, all of which featured important security and geopolitical dynamics. In the end, the agreed upon finance goal fell short of what many developing countries called for, decisions on next steps toward a fossil fuel phaseout were punted to COP30, and any progress was largely overshadowed by concerns about Azerbaijan’s COP Presidency.
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CCS Comments on the First National Nature Assessment Zero Order Draft
Last month, the Center for Climate and Security (CCS) and its Ecological Security Program (ESP) had the opportunity to comment on the Zero Order Draft for the First National Nature Assessment (NNA1) prepared by the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), and is publishing its input here. Last year, CCS submitted public comments on the NNA1 Draft Prospectus and published a blog post about the input. As noted at the time, NNA1’s work to assess the status and trajectory of the US natural environment and the risks of its degradation marked an important step in evaluating broader ecological security issues in the US. This report will be similar in scope to National Climate Assessments published since 2000.
CCS continues to broadly support the themes and framework of the Zero Order Draft, and looks forward to NNA1’s completion in 2026. As indicated in the comments, the USGCRP has included the majority of the recommendations CCS made on the Draft Prospectus and incorporated them into the new outline. While all twelve of the anticipated chapters of the NNA1 have implications for domestic and international security, Chapter 9: Nature and Risk, Resilience, and Security in the U.S. and Chapter 10: Nature and Climate Change in the U.S. have the most direct relation to the work of CCS and ESP.
Overall, CCS’s comments emphasize the importance of expanding the geographic focus of the NNA1 beyond domestic, publicly owned lands and including analysis on potential risks of maladaptation to human security and U.S. national security. Below are CCS’s specific comments under the aforementioned chapters.
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Reshaping Multilateralism Episode 5: The Economics of Food Security
Episode 5 of the Nexus25 project’s podcast, Reshaping Multilateralism, is now available, with Dr. Michael Werz, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Senior Advisor at the Munich Security Conference as host and Dr. Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; and Dr. Vera Songwe, Founder and Chair of Liquidity and Sustainability Facility as guests. They discuss the evolving state of global food security, the intersections between price spikes and national security, and multilateralism’s capacity to address these risks.
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