New Research Brief Offers a Roadmap for Security Council Members to Engage on Climate-Driven Security Risks

2 June 2023

Our new Research Brief Climate Change in the Security Council: Obstacles, Opportunities, and Options identifies entry points for engaging on environmental and climate security issues at the UN Security Council.

Authored by our Head of Research and Policy Studies Dr Erica Harper and Dr Adam Day, Head of the UN University Centre for Policy Research Geneva Office, this new paper provides policymakers in the environmental, human rights and security sectors and UN member states with a clear and realistic roadmap for the 2023–2024 period.

‘Placing climate change on the Council’s agenda is a complex and risky process, where several recent attempts to reach consensus have failed. These difficulties should, however, be set against a growing evidence based of the causal links between environmental change and security risks – with climate change acting as a threat multiplier – and the recent recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment’ explains Dr Harper.

Strategies to Overcome Challenges to Policy Uptake

The 13-page brief outlines a series of interim strategies – from pushing for an expanded Peacebuilding Commission mandate to leveraging the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment – to advance a climate priority in the Council.

‘Our approach and recommendations take into account existing challenges and geopolitical hurdles at the Council: we are very much aware that any approach to climate security will need to account for the risk that attempting ambitious action today could have the unintended consequences of setting issues backward’ explains Dr Day.

To contextualize its recommendations, the paper also provides an overview of the main causal pathways between climate change and insecurity, as well as a short history of how the Council has addressed climate change in the past, including a list of all its relevant climate-security events.

Beyond the Security Council

The paper will also be of interest to Geneva-based diplomats working at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), UN Special Procedures mandate holders and HRC-mandated investigative bodies, including fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry.

‘We need to better understand how issues of climate security are becoming increasingly relevant to the work of UN Special Procedures and investigative bodies, but also to reflect on the potential role that the HRC could play as a generator of information on environmental rights abuse and how this might feed conflict risk assessments and mitigation activities’ underlines Dr Harper.

Part of our Research on the Relationship between Conflict, Security and the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

This brief is the first output of our new research aimed at understanding the relationship between conflict, security and the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

‘Protection against climate change, environmental good governance and the promotion of the right to a healthy environment should thus be seen both as a tool of conflict prevention and key to conflict resolution and non-recidivism. To date, these causal relationships have not been sufficiently integrated into multilateral policy debates and decision-making processes. In response, this project will develop guidance to inform security, human rights and environmental debates on the linkages between environmental rights and conflict, and how their better management could be a tool in conflict prevention, resilience and early warning’ explains Dr Harper.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

Portrait of Giada Rubino News

Executive Master in International Law in Armed Conflict: What Participants Say

4 April 2023

Giada Rubino follows our online Executive Master in International Law in Armed Conflict while working as a Human Rights Associate at OHCHR in Colombia.

Read more

LLM pleadings on the 2004 Gaza conflict News

LLM Students Take on the Challenge of Oral Advocacy on the 2014 Armed Conflict in Gaza

5 May 2023

As every year and in the framework of the IHL core course given by Professor Marco Sassòli, 16 students of our LLM in IHL and Human Rights pleaded on the 2014 armed conflict in and around Gaza.

Read more

New York City Manhattan with view of Un Headquarters Event

2023 Annual Conference: Connecting Geneva and New York for Enhanced Human Rights Protection

21-24 October 2023

The Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform will take place in New York to explore the links between Geneva and New York, the relevance of Geneva's outputs in New York debates, and the implications for human rights.

Read more

Closeup of the Meta sign at the entrance to the Meta Platforms headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Event

A New Human Rights Tribunal in Town? The Oversight Board and the Future of Online Freedom of Expression

18 October 2023, 18:00-19:30

This Human Rights Conversation will explore the extent to which an independent mechanism such as the Meta Oversight Board is akin to a human rights tribunal and the risks that could be linked to delegating such powers to a private authority.

Read more

View of a session of the UN Human Rights Committee Training

The International Human Rights Standards and System: Monitoring and Implementation Strategies at the National Level

8-12 July 2024

This training course will delve into the means and mechanisms through which national actors can best coordinate their human rights monitoring and implementation efforts, enabling them to strategically navigate the UN human rights system and use the various mechanisms available in their day-to-day work.

Read more

Garment workersto receive food from their factory during lunch time. This food is freely provided by their factory in order to ensure that workers eat healthy and hygienic food. Training

Business and Human Rights

Fall 2024

This training course will examine how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have been utilized to advance the concept of business respect for human rights throughout the UN system, the impact of the Guiding Principles on other international organizations, as well as the impact of standards and guidance developed by these different bodies.

Read more

Neutrotechology Project

Neurotechnology and Human Rights

Started in August 2023

This project addresses the human rights implications stemming from the development of neurotechnology for commercial, non-therapeutic ends, and is based on a partnership between the Geneva Academy, the Geneva University Neurocentre and the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. 

Read more

surveillance image of people Project

Human Rights in a Digitalized World: Mapping Risk, Strengthening Regulation and Promoting the Development of International Human Rights Law

Started in August 2023

To unpack the challenges raised by artificial intelligence, this project will target two emerging and under-researched areas: digital military technologies and neurotechnology.

Read more

Cover page of the Working Paper Publication

Exploring Counterterrorism Effectiveness and Human Rights Law

published on September 2023

Gloria Gaggioli, Michael Moncrieff , Ilya Sobol

Read more