Introduction to Climate and Environmental Security in Peace Operations

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Our understanding about the links between climate change, environment and conflict has improved significantly over the last ten to fifteen years. While at the beginning the question was about the “if”, it is today about the “when, where and how” climate change is impacting different variables and drivers of instability and conflict. While climate change itself does not automatically lead to conflict it can play a role in the food insecurity, economic inequality, displacement and criminality that aggravate ethnic and political divides. As the world warms, climatic distress plays an increasingly central role in many of today’s conflicts.  Many of the most climate-vulnerable countries are also among the most fragile contexts. Therefore, peace operations need to be equipped with knowledge and tools for understanding and analyzing the highly contextual pathways through which climate change and environmental degradation affect livelihoods and conflict and learn how to develop effective response strategies.

The tutored 3,5 days course is organized by the Berlin Center for international Peace Operations (ZIF) in cooperation with the Berlin based think tank adelphi and aims at building practical skills on understanding and analyzing climate-related security risks in order to contribute to crisis prevention and sustaining peace. Thus, the course does not deal with greening peace operations, i.e. how to reduce the ecological footprint of a mission, but rather with the concrete impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on relevant conflict dynamics and how a mission could potentially address them.

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• understand and describe the links between climate change, environment, peace and security
• reflect on their mission mandate and their role using a climate security lens
• apply different methodologies, techniques and tools to analyze climate-related risks and identify entry points
• integrate different perspectives into analysis and planning
• identify programming gaps/actions points and further training needs

This course is designed for civilian experts, police and military personnel who serve or will serve in peacekeeping missions or other field operations with a special interest in the topic of climate and environmental security and/or first experiences in this field.

• Links between climate change, environment and conflict
• Climate and environmental security in the mission context, mandates and current developments
• Introduction to different analysis tools e.g. climate-fragility hot spot mapping; pressure map and conflict tree
• Climate programming in the mission context

Participation in this course is not subject to any specific requirements. The course will be held in English.

ZIF Trainings:

ZIF trainings are practice-oriented and reflect the operational reality of peace operations and (post-)conflict areas through exercises, role plays and scenario-based courses. Moreover, our trainings focus on the main areas of competence outlined in the ZIF Concept “Civilian Expert”. Additionally, we base our courses on contemporary concepts of adult education and peer learning. We try to create a joint learning space in which participants and the training team can exchange freely and critically, and which provides room for self-reflection. Another important goal of our courses is to encourage a change of perspective. One way of achieving this is by mainstreaming the comprehensive approach (civilian, police, military), which is made possible through our cooperation within the German Training Partner Platform.

Board and accommodation are covered by ZIF. Participants have to bear the costs for their individual arrival and departure. 

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