Climate Diplomacy: Foreign Policy Responses to Climate Change

The effects of climate change will increasingly shape our security in the coming years. Our physical environment is now in a state of flux, posing significant challenges to how societies function. This may have serious economic, social and political consequences for entire regions. Countries with varied adaptation capacities will be able to handle the impacts in different ways, while many developing countries and fragile states that lack established and stable institutions are likely to be hit hardest. To address these challenges, a new profile of climate diplomacy is evolving to make use of a full range of policies, including development cooperation, conflict prevention efforts, and humanitarian assistance, in addition to more traditional measures of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

These new approaches for foreign policy go beyond the traditional realms of climate policy. Moving from risk analysis of climate-related threats to timely preventive action requires greater commitment to integrating climate change concerns into development, foreign, and security policies. Examples include strengthening diplomatic networks, building new alliances with partners, and raising awareness – not only of potentially negative climate change impacts, but also of opportunities to embark on a sustainable transformation of our societies. Such a new foreign policy approach will also contribute to implementing thelandmark climate agreement reached in Paris in December 2015. Indeed, the approach has already proven to be instrumental in bridging the long-standing divide between developed and developing countries.

Keywordsclimate change, foreign policy, regional assessment, decision making