New York/ hybrid, 25 April 2023 -- the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations, Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) convened the COP27 Presidency Initiative: Climate Response for Sustaining Peace (CRSP) Briefing Event - Scaling Up Action on the Adaptation and Peacebuilding Nexus in New York on 25 April 2023.
Building on the outcomes of the CRSP consultation meeting held in Cairo on 6-7 March 2023, the briefing was held to provide an overview of the initiative’s state of implementation, as well as opportunities to partner and engage with it leading up to COP28 and beyond. It also focused on awareness-raising and providing an update on Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace, focusing on mobilization and outreach to partners in New York and beyond. In addition, the event also witnessed the launch of the study, “Re-envisioning Climate Change Adaptation Policy to Sustain Peace - A typology and Analysis of NAPs,” and the kick off of the Adaptation and Peacebuilding Metrics Hackathon, under CRSP Pillar 1.
Addressing the opening session, H.E. Ambassador Osama Abdel-Khalek, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN, stressed on the importance given to the nexus that the CRSP initiative brings forward, stating “The Egyptian presidency of COP27 was very keen from the very early start to address the several components of climate action comprehensively (…) We firmly believe in addressing the root causes of climate change and adapting to its catastrophic impacts, and will strongly continue to the peace and security challenges that could arise from the devastating impacts of climate change, as well as addressing the specific needs and challenges of developing countries, especially in Africa”.
H.E Ambassador Jan Wahlberg, Ambassador for Peace Mediation of Finland, commended the CRSP initiative and its multi-pillar design, specifically noting the importance of the fourth pillar of CRSP on Accelerating Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace, in light of the scope of the Champions Group on Adaptation Finance: “We need to improve the accessibility, availability and quality of adaptation finance, and this relates nicely to the CRSP fourth pillar on adaptation finance in fragile and conflict-affected settings”.
In his opening remarks, Mr. George Conway, Deputy Director of the UNDP Crisis Bureau, stated: “the CRSP initiative has offered a new vision and the much-needed leadership from the Global South to galvanize wide-reaching political support and a multi-stakeholder coalition to take forward the agenda of sustaining peace in climate change”.
On his part, H.E Ambassador Ahmed Abdel-Latif, Director-General of CCCPA, outlined how CRSP seeks to mobilize climate responses that focus on adaptation, resilience, and climate finance, using the COP platform, as well as anchoring addressing climate change risks in the sustaining peace agenda. Ambassador Abdel-Latif also noted: “CRSP moves the needle away from a narrow approach to climate security and ensures that climate change responses are anchored in the sustaining peace agenda”.
Ambassador Abdel-Latif also highlighted the three main functions of the initiative, grounded in the outcomes of the CRSP consultation meeting, which are (1) Connecting the climate, peace, and security communities (2) Catalyzing successful examples of targeted policy interventions, and (3) Impacting through actions that ensure that the needs of local communities are at the forefront of climate responses. Lastly, Ambassador Abdel-Latif stressed on several points that CRSP is highly attentive to, such as the need to prioritize capacity building and strengthening national ownership to address the interface of climate, peace and security.
Under CRSP Pillar 1 on “Advancing the Climate Adaptation and Peacebuilding Nexus”, the meeting included the introduction by Ms. Catherine Wong, Team Leader Climate and Security Risk – UNDP, of the study “Re-envisioning Climate Change Adaptation Policy to Sustain Peace: A typology and Analysis of National Adaptation Plans”, under CRSP Pillar 1, which focuses on the extent to which climate, peace and security intersections are described and addressed within the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), with the aim of offering an initial blueprint for the mainstreaming of climate-related security risks into NAPs. This study aims to provide an important reference point to explore the scope of climate-related security risks in the NAPs, specifically and climate change adaptation policy and planning and related sectoral policies in general and how they are currently being addressed from a policy and strategic perspective.
The technical session of the briefing event also included presentations on relevant topics such as adaptation programming and development of NAPs in fragile and conflict affected settings (FCAS) presented by Ms. Rohini Kohli - Senior Technical Advisor Climate Change Adaptation, UNDP; and Peacebuilding Fund’s climate security thematic review, presented by Ms. Bushra Hassan, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, DPPA; and the evaluation of the Global Environmental Facility’s support in FCAS by Mr. Carl Bruch, Senior Attorney and Director of International Programs at the Environmental Law Institute.
Building on the outcomes of the CRSP consultation meeting, the event also kickstarted the Metrics for Climate Change Adaptation and Peacebuilding, aiming at co-designing, monitoring and reporting on a global set of peace-co-benefit metrics of adaptation policy and practice, with the goal of generating a shared understanding and evidence-based approaches on adaptation and peacebuilding; advancing conceptualization of climate adaptation, peace and security, and strengthening evidence base on adaptation and peacebuilding for strengthened resource mobilization.
CRSP is currently in the process of holding meetings on all of the four pillars of the initiative with the relevant partners and stakeholders, with the aim of moving forward the implementation plan of activities under each pillar in the lead up to COP28.
