Climate Change, Peace and Security for UN Field Missions
Welcome!
The Secretary-General has called climate change “the defining issue of our time.” The average global temperature is increasing, causing more severe and frequent extreme weather events as well as slow-onset phenomena. This affects the lives and livelihoods of people in all corners of the globe. Particularly in conflict affected settings, the impacts of climate change can compound economic, social or political drivers of insecurity, leaving already vulnerable populations on the frontlines of multiple, intersecting crises. Therefore, the effects of climate change have become an issue of growing significance for UN field missions.
Since 2017, the Security Council has acknowledged the adverse impact of climate change, natural disasters and weather phenomena on stability in the mandates of seven field-based special political missions (SPMs) and five peacekeeping operations (PKOs), frequently highlighting the importance of risk assessments and risk management strategies.
In this context, this self-paced, online course unpacks the interlinkages between climate change, peace and security and explores opportunities for addressing climate-related security risks in the work of UN field missions. It provides foundational knowledge as part of a broader capacity building programme targeting SPMs and PKOs.
What Will You Learn?
- To identify the interlinkages between climate change, peace and security.
- To discuss the different pathways of climate-related security risks.
- To describe the evolution of climate change, peace and security as a policy area.
- To explain why these interlinkages matter for UN field missions.
- To conduct a light-touch integrated climate-related security risk analysis using a gender and youth lens.
- To use different types of qualitative and quantitative data for integrated climate-related security risk analysis.
- To identify climate-related security risks in your mission's area of operations and find entry points for integrating and addressing them in your work.
Course Structure
The course includes 2 modules:
Module 1: Introduction to the Interlinkages between Climate Change, Peace and Security
Module 2: Analyzing the Interlinkages between Climate Change, Peace and Security
This course is offered only for UN Field Missions.
Will You Get a Certificate?
After completing the two modules, participants will have the opportunity to pass a final quiz. Participants who pass the final quiz within three attempts will be issued a certificate of completion. A quiz is successfully passed at a score of 70% or higher. Completion certificates will be available for download from the course’s webpage.