International experts will meet on 9th and 10th December at the «Workshop on climate, peace and security. How to put environmental peacebuilding principles into practice» celebrated in Sevilla (Spain).
The event is organised by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg; Casa África and the European External Action Service, in collaboration with Conama, among others, and it will be held by the Sevilla City Hall.
It pretends bring together experts and representatives from various countries to discuss possible initiatives and actions against climate change and the security problems in the international arena. In addition, the specific role that the EU and Africa can play in this context will be explored and discussed, especially in key scenarios such as the Sahel.
Europe hopes to become a global leader in matters pertaining to environment and conflict, as exemplified in multiple Council Conclusions since 2018, and has recently adopted key documents to update its thematic work along these lines. The current Commission’s Green Deal agenda, as well as the latest NDICI requirement to earmark 30% of external budget to climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, provide unique opportunities to ensure this. Yet, knowledge on how to operationalise its role in the field is still lacking, and the EU needs a formal setting to discuss these efforts.
How will climate impacts influence global peace?
The proposed operational approach for this workshop has three key objectives:
1. Bring together the expert communities concerned: Given the current lack of integration and coordination among the experts concerned, in particular, the peace, environment and development communities, the workshop would allow for a systematic exchange of views, experiences and reflections on the relationship, promote the development of joint analysis and understanding, as well as raise awareness of environmental and conflict actions.
2. Identify methodologies and opportunities to accelerate operationalisation on the ground: Prioritise the identification and design of specific methodologies and opportunities to accelerate the operationalisation of knowledge gained on the environment-conflict relationship, including the sharing of lessons learned from initiatives and work already underway as case studies, the identification of challenges to scaling up best practices, as well as concrete ideas and opportunities on how to address them. These will be applied on the ground, in key settings in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, among others.
3. Explore the establishment of a collaborative space to advance the operationalisation of environmental and peace action: Explore the benefits of establishing a collaborative space to serve as a dedicated channel for cooperation, exchanges and the development of operational projects at the European level.
The workshop also aims to support the ongoing efforts of the European External Action Service in integrating climate and peace considerations into its conflict prevention and mediation support tools. In this respect, the Workshop complements the EEAS series of events on climate and conflict, including training and capacity building efforts.
More information here.
Download the programme here.
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