On 19 May 2020, the Stockholm Climate Security Hub’s four partner institutes; the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), together with the United Nations Climate Security Mechanism (CSM) convened a session at the 2020 Virtual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. The session brought together over 50 invited researchers, experts and practitioners in the field of climate security to discuss and share good practices and experiences around the integrated analysis of climate-related security risks.
To jumpstart the discussion, the CSM presented its recently developed Climate Security Toolbox. Then researchers representing the four Hub partners shared some reflections on the CSM toolkit. Finally, participants shared their insights and experiences with analyzing climate-related security risks and exchange lessons learned.
Two key aspects that came up in the lively discussion were first, the continuous challenge of framing climate-related security challenges as a broad, human security, not a hard security issue. The second key focus of the discussion related to the need for adopting a systemic risk perspective in comprehensive risk assessments, one that goes beyond direct and indirect risks to also consider underlying root causes of risks and feedback loops. The session identified a need to develop further understanding of these complex risks through research, and to keep refining and working on them in practice. Outcomes of the discussion serve as input for the continuous improvement of the toolbox and guidance documents developed by the CSM.
