In a historic moment for CGIAR, Salma Kadry, a Climate, Peace, and Security Specialist at CGIAR’s FOCUS Climate Security initiative, addressed the United Nations Security Council on June 13, 2023.
Kadry’s invitation to participate in the Security Council’s Open Debate marks a significant milestone, being the first time a CGIAR scientist would address the United Nations Security Council on the climate, peace, and security agenda. This recognition underlines CGIAR’s expertise in the said agenda.
Under the presidency of the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations Security Council convened a ministerial open debate titled “Climate Change, Peace and Security” to explore the implications of climate change on international peace and security. The debate examined how climate change can inform the Security Council’s mandate and operations to address fragility, vulnerability, and humanitarian needs and promote resilient societies.
In the briefing segment, Salma Kadry was joined by Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, and Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia, Nobel Peace laureate, and member of The Elders. The Debate was chaired by the Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, Mariam Almheiri.
During her speech, Salma Kadry seized the exceptional opportunity to bring an Arab perspective to the climate, peace, and security agenda, shedding light on the importance of adopting people-centered approaches to climate-security responses and generating a bottom-up understanding of climate-resilient peace. Her address served as a powerful call to action, emphasizing the urgent need to address the complex interplay between climate change, peace, and security.
Kadry’s address centered on three key areas of concern within the context of climate, peace, and security in the Arab region:
- Climate change has a destabilizing effect on food, water, and energy systems, which undermines the social contract that – for long – has been anchored in ensuring access to affordable goods and basic services.
- Conflict and fragility weaken governance, destroy infrastructure, and fracture societies, which take away the resilience tools that can be used to deal with the climate crisis.
- If not anchored in human development, global forces and processes, such as the energy transition, can bring risks and reinforce the same inequalities.
Salma Kadry stressed, “There are global forces and processes, including the energy transition, that – if not designed to serve human development and benefit local communities – risk reinforcing inequalities and leaving the root causes of conflict and fragility unaddressed. I invite you to think about the intended and the unintended consequences of the energy transition on the Arab region and what it means for sustaining peace.”
Acknowledging the Arab region’s historical contributions to humanity, Kadry highlighted the resilience of its young population in the face of concurrent challenges and hardships. However, she expressed deep concern that future generations would face multiplying dangers and insecurities without sufficient action to combat the climate crisis.
Kadry put forth four recommendations to address these imminent dangers and insecurities:
- Support and learn from grassroots adaptation and innovation, enabling the well-being and resilience-building of people.
- Widen the spectrum of research that informs the council’s decisions and leverage local Arab networks, researchers, and thinkers.
- Leverage regional processes and initiatives to bridge the gap between local and global actions.
- Ensure climate finance reaches those most in need, including reparations for countries least responsible for climate change, simplified climate finance tools for conflict-affected countries, and gender and youth-responsive finance.
Salma Kadry concluded her speech by emphasizing the essential role of political will in driving meaningful change.
“I will end by mentioning the most important piece of the puzzle: the political will. The will, which is the very characteristic that sets us apart as human beings. The will that can make us move mountains or stay where we are.”
She urged multilateral institutions to innovate and adapt to the challenges at hand, acknowledging the task’s difficulty but emphasizing the necessity of rising to the occasion.
This historic address by Salma Kadry at the United Nations Security Council showcases CGIAR’s commitment to cutting-edge research and innovative solutions in climate, peace, and security. Kadry’s expertise and visionary recommendations underscore the need for coordinated global efforts to confront the challenges that lie ahead.
Read Salma Kadry’s full speech below:
Madam President, Excellencies,
Thank you to the United Arab Emirates mission to the UN for the kind invitation and the opportunity to speak to you today about climate change, peace and security, and what it means for the Arab region.
Throughout history, the Arab region has been a land of great civilizations and major contributions and breakthroughs for the advancement of humankind and now home to one of the youngest populations in the world and one that I would confidently say most resilient despite the concurrent challenges and hardships that it has been facing over the past decades.
It is a region that has endured – and in some parts of it continues to endure – conflict, political instability, economic hardships, mounting debts, a shrinking fiscal space, and ever harsher climate impacts, making it harder and harder for people to secure the basics of a decent life and pushed people to use every mean and tool to adapt and survive.
What I am afraid of is that – if we don’t step up to the magnitude of the climate crisis – a warming climate will put my generation and future ones right in the face of multiplying dangers and insecurities.
The scientific evidence for climate impacts in the region is clear and strong, and we are by no means on an equal footing with the forces of nature.
I will take this opportunity to bring your attention to three issues that are of importance to the Arab region when talking about the climate change, peace, and security agenda:
- FIRST – In many countries in the region, the social contract is anchored in the provision of affordable goods, commodities, and basic services, and there are multiple instances where price spikes have been a driver for popular unrest and instability. It is important to be mindful that in a context where climate change destabilizes food, land, and water systems, the prospect of securing food, water, and energy needs is undermined, and this can act as a major destabilizing factor, particularly that the region is one of the most water-scarce in the world and heavily dependent on food imports.
- SECOND – Conflict and fragility weaken governance, cause political frictions, and damage the social fabric of societies. It also destroys physical infrastructure, water infrastructure, housing, education, and healthcare facilities. It simply destabilizes every resilience tool and drives societies into a very dangerous and uncertain pathway. In simple words, conflicts multiply risks and challenges, and take away the tools which can be used to face the climate crisis.
- THIRD – There are global forces and processes, including the energy transition, that – if by design – don’t serve human development or bring benefits to local development, we run the risk of reinforcing the same inequalities and leaving the root causes of conflict and fragility unaddressed. I invite you to think about the intended and unintended consequences of the energy transition on the Arab region and what it means for sustaining peace.
So, now – What needs to be done?
I will put forward four recommendations.
But first, I want to echo a core idea from An Agenda for Peace by Former Secretary General Boutrous Ghali – a report that has shaped my thinking on many of these issues – which is that preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding at essence should address the deepest causes of conflict.
Hence, the climate change, peace, and security agenda should be anchored in prevention, resilience, risk mitigation, justice, and equity.
Moving to the four recommendations:
FIRST – People are the ones who bear the brunt of conflicts, the climate crisis, and any vacuums created by dysfunctional systems. However, they are at the center of adaptation, creation, and innovation. I invite you to revisit how effective peace and security tools are in supporting people’s innovations and building their resilience, particularly those of women and youth.
SECOND – Evidence-based, timely, and accurate knowledge has always been key for sound decisions and interventions. I advise the council to broaden the spectrum of research that informs its decisions. One way is through leveraging local Arab networks, researchers, and thinkers who are skillful, speak the language, and have cultural appropriateness to generate a bottom-up understanding of climate-resilient peace.
Another way is through utilizing innovative, state-of-the-art science on food, land, and water systems, that are central to the climate security nexus, such as through the newly launched CGIAR Climate Security Observatory – A decision support tool helping stakeholders understand how climate is exacerbating root causes of conflict, where is this happening and for who and what can be done to mitigate the vicious cycle of climate and conflict.
THIRD – Over the past few years, there has been growing attention to this agenda at the regional level. Most noticeably, the COP27 presidency launched the Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace initiative. The Arab Water Council and the League of Arab States have created mechanisms to advance this agenda at a regional level. The COP28 Presidency is dedicating a thematic day for Relief, Recovery, and Resilience. In my capacity, I am contributing to CGIAR’s global agenda on climate security with a regional focus on the Arab world – based in Cairo and aim to generate local and context-specific knowledge on the topic.
It is important to leverage these regional processes to act as a bridge between the local level up to the council.
FOURTH – climate finance needs to reach the ones most deserving of it. The climate finance issue is a big one, but there are a few points I want to emphasize:
- Reparations need to be paid to countries who least contributed to this problem to be able to adapt and deal with loss and damage.
- There is a need for simplified climate finance tools that are tailored to conflict countries, reach the ones most in need, and serve climate adaptation, which is a top priority for the region.
I will end by mentioning the most important piece of the puzzle: the political will. The will, which is the very characteristic that sets us apart as human beings.
The will that can make us move mountains or stay where we are.
I acknowledge the difficulty of the task at hand, but I urge you to innovate and recreate multilateral tools to live up to the challenge and to stop the passing of struggles and hardships to my generation and the coming ones.
Thank you very much.
