ObjectivesFund scope
The impact of climate-related security risks challenge the ability of the United Nations staff to implement organizational mandates effectively. Responses take many forms, but there is no shared approach or common repository of good practices on how to link the areas of climate change, conflict prevention, and sustaining peace. As a result, long-term and multidimensional components get left out of climate-related security programmes and planning does not involve integrated approaches or avenues for securing sufficient resources.
The Climate Security Mechanism integrates climate-related security risk assessments to better identify gaps and opportunities for addressing climate-related security risks and outcomes on all individuals. In collaboration with partners, including international researchers and non-governmental organizations, the CSM offers a simple and flexible model of service delivery to support climate-peace-security and development action in high-risk regions. Cutting across regional and thematic focus areas, the fund model centers on four priority areas of work: Capacity building, supporting data collection and analysis, advocacy and partnerships, and knowledge generation and management.
Since its inception, the CSM expanded its partnerships to scale up projects and provide in-depth technical advice and support in places most affected by overlapping challenges linked to climate change, peace, and security. To date, mechanism stakeholders have developed 13 catalytic field initiatives in the Americas, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia that are dedicated to building capacities and supporting integrated approaches for the analysis and management of climate-related security risks.
Theory of change
If the traditional divides between the peace and security, human rights, and development pillars of the UN are bridged to collectively address climate-related security risks at multiple levels, and if UN entities have the necessary resources and capacity to expand existing efforts to analyze, understand and respond to climate-related security risks in an integrated fashion, and if strategic partnerships are formed outside the UN system, and if the evidence base of climate-related security effects is strengthened and combined with gender-sensitive information and interactions with social, economic, demographic and political factors, and if diplomatic, advocacy and communications efforts help raise awareness among global, regional and national leaders and decision makers, and if stakeholders convene to consider evidence-based assessments of climate-related security risks and appropriate responses, THEN entities working on climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development, and entities working on peace and security and conflict prevention will be better able to develop effective response strategies and policy and programming solutions to address climate-related security risks.
Addressing the security implications of climate change is a collective problem and requires collective responses. These revolve around strengthening partnerships to leverage existing capacities across the UN system and with Member States, regional organizations, civil society, the growing external research community, and also the private sector.