It is undoubtedly a challenge for climate policy actors to identify reliable evidence to support sound decision-making processes for tackling climate issues effectively. Still, differentiating between fact and fiction, well-designed and invalid science, evidence- or interest-based arguments is precisely what determines the quality of climate policies.

This year's 2nd edition of the European Security and Defence Union journal is looking into climate change as global security and humanitarian challenge. Janani Vivekananda, Senior Adviser for Climate Change and Peacebuilding at adelphi, has contributed to the journal with a piece on the climate security crisis currently plaguing the Lake Chad basin. Lake Chad is a geophysical and ecological miracle.

This new report by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in collaboration with the Clingendael Institute and other Dutch research institutes points to pressure on security and migration arising from too little, too much or polluted water. Many integrated solutions are possible to divert this trend towards a sustainable and climate-resilient world.

The Climate Change and International Security Resource Guide is produced for the Brussels Dialogue on Climate Diplomacy (BDCD) which consists of a series of informal meetings to exchange information and promote cooperation among European institutions and international organisations active in the nexus between climate change and international, national, human and environmental security.
 

This Climate-Fragility profile is envisaged as a first component of a Climate-Fragility Risk Assessment process. It summarizes the key challenges the Lake Chad region is experiencing as a consequence of the interplay between climate change and fragility.

South Asia is on the front line in confronting the implications of climate change and addressing the consequences for security.

To analyse this and more, the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change (GMACCC) has just released its report “Climate Change and Security in South Asia”. GMACCC is a global network of military and security experts working on the security implications of climate change. President BIPSS, Major General A N M Muniruzzaman, ndc, psc (Retd) is the Chairman of GMACCC. He is also a lead author of this report.

Conflict and climate change have pushed 124 million people in 51 countries into acute food security, a situation when the inability to consume adequate food represents an immediate danger to people’s lives and livelihoods. In 2017, the number of people affected by acute food insecurity increased by 11 million. These are the main findings of a publication titled, “Global Report on Food Crises,” released by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).

The NATO Parliamentary Assemblies’ Science and Technology Committee drafted a new report on Food and Water Security in the Middle East and North Africa. The report underlines that pressures on natural resources and connected impacts on food production are factors that contribute to the (in-) security of the MENA region. The document summarizes causes as well as possible technical and governance approaches to improve food and water security in the region. The initiative shows that the role of environmental resources is increasingly taken seriously in the sphere of security policy.

Climate change is amplifying the risk of extreme weather disasters by increasing the destructive power of storms and floods. At the same time, rising seas, shifting rainfall patterns, drought and other slow-onset changes are eroding people’s land, natural resources and security, and magnifying existing vulnerabilities.

Shortly after releasing a report on its climate change strategy in July 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations presents a new report at COP23 - this time focusing on the organization's concrete work on climate change.