S1E4: What Is Climate, Peace and Security? w/ Sagal Abshir

Welcome to Terra.talk, the official podcast of international climate school ⁠⁠⁠Terra.do.⁠⁠⁠ In a period of escalating conflict around the globe, Sagal Abshir dives into the highly technical field of climate, peace and security with Shannon and Jae, explaining how a changing physical climate can exacerbate existing hostilities and amplify threats of tensions boiling over.

Sagal has been working at the intersection of climate, peace and security since 2020 when she first undertook research on these linkages in the Horn of Africa. Most recently, she led a team at the UN Environment Programme that focused on influencing policy and designing responses to the interaction of environmental degradation and climate change with peace and security dynamics worldwide. 

Sagal comes from a peacebuilding and governance background, having worked directly for the Prime Minister of the Somali government and also advised the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Somalia. Her time in Somalia awakened her to the increasing intensity of climate change impacts and their devastating effects on the most vulnerable. Overall she spent a decade in the public sector, as a practitioner and researcher focused on the challenges of rebuilding in fragile or post-conflict settings. A lawyer by training, Sagal started out her career in the private sector, practicing corporate law in New York. Sagal holds a law degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She's now based in Nairobi, Kenya, and is an alum of Terra.do's Learning for Action Fellowship (and the one who introduced Shannon to Terra!).

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On this topic at the UN Security Council

• Climate Security at the UN Security Council, a short history (Jan 2022)
• The Security Council Report (Oct 2022): The UN Security Council and Climate Change: Tracking the Agenda after the 2021 Veto

UN resources:

• UN Climate Security Mechanism - describes the UN mechanism, but also provides some useful resources (toolkit, online course, articles and reports)
• UNEP's work on environment and security

Other multilateral responses:

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