Marrakesh - Morocco
Overview
The year 2015 was a historic year for efforts to combat climate change, with passage of the new Paris Climate Change Agreement, and passage of the Sustainable Development Goals including SDG 13 on climate change action. The Paris Climate Change Agreement has a strong focus on national actions and solutions, with COP22 in Morocco to focus on the implementation agenda. While much attention has been placed on the needs for scaled-up finance and technology, less attention has been placed on the critical nexus between issues of climate change, peace and security. This is particularly important for the Arab region, with COP22 an opportunity to better understand this nexus and develop new capacities to take action.
This high-level session at COP22 will focus on this growing agenda, explore emerging trends like food and water insecurity, links to displacement and conflict, and types of policies and measures countries can put in place to help manage climate risks and build resilience By bringing together global, regional and local actors focused on this agenda, the event can also serve as a stepping stone for COP22 legacy initiatives to address the climate nexus to human security in the Arab region and beyond.
The event will explore three central areas critical for addressing the nexus of climate change and security:
1. Food, Water and Resource Insecurity - Climate change is reshaping the outlook for food, water and natural resource security globally and in the Arab region. , Climate change is already triggering disruption to food and water security for communities and countries, with increased social vulnerability, competition over resources, or pressures on trans-boundary resource regimes.
2. Climate-Induced Migration and Displacement – A need exists to better understand ways food, water and resource insecurity lead to displacement and conflict in the Arab region and globally, and types of response options countries can consider to manage such risks. This includes mainstreaming climate risk into agriculture and water systems, expanding early warning, innovating social protection policy and other emerging options.
3. Climate-Resilient Recovery – In countries attempting to emerge from conflict and situations of fragility, a need exists to consider climate risks for recovery efforts. Many displacement and conflict hot spots are also emerging hot spots of climate impact. A need exists to ensure new investments to regenerate agriculture, water systems and other infrastructure can withstand future climate risks, to build the bridge from recovery to sustainable development.
ORGANISERS
Hosted by the Islamic Development Bank, convened at the ISDB Pavilion at COP22, and organized by UNDP. Invited speakers from Arab member countries, Sweden, Canada, the League of Arab States, experts from academia and practitioners from NGOs and think tanks.
The event will be moderated by UNDP.