https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4350-4386
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ABSTRACT
Over the past three decades, United Nations (UN) Peace Operations have become increasingly multidimensional and integrated. Blue helmets, originally deployed to provide security and enforce cease-fires, are now engaging in multi-domain activities aimed at sustaining long-term peace. As part of this trend, the UN Security Council has begun mandating Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs) and Special Political Missions (SPMs) to engage in climate-sensitive programming. Questions, however, remain over the effectiveness of climate-related activities in peace operations. This study, using a large textual dataset, provides a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the state of climate-sensitive programming in PKOs and SPMs. The findings indicate that while mandates and programming activities related to climate change have been on the rise, most field operations have failed to integrate climate-sensitive programming into their work. Moreover, the agenda on climate security appears to have led to a process of institutional decoupling between organizational arrangements and field activities.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Carius, “Environmental Peacebuilding: Conditions for Success,”; Environmental Change and Security Program Report; Taylor and Davis, “Taking the Gun out of Extraction”; Huda and Ali, “Environmental Peacebuilding in South Asia,” 160; Johnson, “Local Engagement in Environmental Peacebuilding,” 1; Krampe, “Ownership and Inequalities,” 1159.
2 Ravier et al., “Environmental Experiences and Developments in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations,”; Annica Waleij et al., “Environmental Stewardship in Peace Operations,”; Maertens and Shoshan, “Greening Peacekeeping: The Environmental Impact of UN Peace Operations,”; Maertens, “From Blue to Green?” 302.
3 Carius, “Environmental Cooperation as an Instrument of Crisis Prevention,”; Conca and Wallace, “Environment and Peacebuilding in War-Torn Societies,” 485; Bruch, Muffet, and Nichols, eds., Governance, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding; Schilling et al., “Resilience and Environmental Security,” 107; Ogden, “Environmental Peacebuilding,” 157; Dresse et al., “Environmental Peacebuilding,” 99.
4 UNSC, “5663rd Meeting,” S/PV.5663, April 17, 2007, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/597431.
5 UNSC, “Resolution 2242,” S/RES/2242, October 13, 2015, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/807245.
6 “Integrating Climate Change into Peacebuilding,” Climatic Change 123, no. 1 (March 2014): 83–93; Matthew, “Climate Change Adaptation and Peacebuilding,” 108.
7 “Greening Peacekeeping: The Environmental Impact of UN Peace Operations.”
8 Hardt and Scheffran, “Environmental Peacebuilding and Climate Change,”; Ide, “The Dark Side of Environmental Peacebuilding,” 104777; Ide et al., “The Past and Future(s) of Environmental Peacebuilding,” 1.
9 Born, Eklöw, and Mobjörk, “Advancing United Nations Responses to Climate-Related Security Risks,”; Eklöw and Krampe, “Climate-Related Security Risks and Peacebuilding in Somali,”; Krampe, “Climate Change, Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace,”; Sherman and Krampe, “The Peacebuilding Commission and Climate-Related Security Risks,”; Hegazi, Krampe, and Seymour Smith, “Climate-Related Security Risks and Peacebuilding in Mali,”.
10 “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” 340.
11 Lipson, “Peacekeeping: Organized Hypocrisy?,” 7; Greenwood, The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism.
12 DPO, “What Is Peacekeeping,” United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/what-is-peacekeeping.
13 DFS, “Peacekeeping Operations Principles and Guidelines” (New York: United Nations, 2008), 18.
14 DPO, “Principles of Peacekeeping,” United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/principles-of-peacekeeping.
15 UN, “The Charter of the United Nations,” 1945, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter.
16 “Peacekeeping Operations Principles and Guidelines,” 18.
17 DPO, “Mandates and the Legal Basis for Peacekeeping,” United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mandates-and-legal-basis-peacekeeping.
18 DFS, “Peacekeeping Operations Principles and Guidelines.”
19 Multidimensional operations "employ a mix of military, police and civilian capabilities" working on multiple domain areas "to support the implementation of a comprehensive peace agreement" DFS, 23.. Integrated operations are missions with a broad range of UN actors and partners that work together under a "shared vision" to obtain "strategic objectives" in a host country DFS, 53.. Multidimensional and integrated operations are therefore compos of
20 Dresse et al., “Environmental Peacebuilding: Towards a Theoretical Framework”; Krampe, Hegazi, and VanDeveer, “Sustaining Peace through Better Resource Governance,” 105508.
21 Gleick, “Environment and Security,” 16; Homer-Dixon, “On the Threshold,”; Mohnen, Goldstein, and Wang, “The Conflict over Global Warming,” 109; Spillmann and Bächler, eds., “Environmental Crisis,” .
22 Environmental Peacemaking (New York: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), https://www.wilsoncenter.org/book/environmental-peacemaking.
23 Scartozzi, “Reframing Climate-Induced Socio-Environmental Conflicts,”
24 Dresse et al., “Environmental Peacebuilding: Towards a Theoretical Framework.”
25 Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence; “Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases,” 5.
26 Ide and Tubi, “Education and Environmental Peacebuilding,” 1; Ide et al., “The Past and Future(s) of Environmental Peacebuilding”; Krampe, Hegazi, and VanDeveer, “Sustaining Peace through Better Resource Governance,”.
27 Carius, “Environmental Peacebuilding: Conditions for Success”; Ide, “The Impact of Environmental Cooperation on Peacemaking,” 327; Krampe, Hegazi, and VanDeveer, “Sustaining Peace through Better Resource Governance,”; Johnson, Rodríguez, and Quijano Hoyos, “Intrastate Environmental Peacebuilding,” 105150.
28 “The Past and Future(s) of Environmental Peacebuilding.”
29 Ide et al.
30 Lehtonen, “Peacebuilding through Natural Resource Management,”; Krampe, “Toward Sustainable Peace,”1; Krampe, Hegazi, and VanDeveer, “Sustaining Peace through Better Resource Governance,”.
31 “The Dark Side of Environmental Peacebuilding.”
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33 Barquet, “Yes to Peace?” 14.
34 To think of this difference, it can be helpful to consider populations living in a low-lying coastal area. Their adaptive responses to a one-in-ten-year storm surge are likely to be different than a case where a “one-in-ten-year” storm surge begins to occur every year. A rare or stochastic event may motivate the inhabitants to buy an insurance or build floodwalls, a rare event that become increasingly common may motivate them to relocate. Moreover, if this population happens to be from a small island developing states, their relocation will also justify requests for payments for loss and damage.
35 Oels, “From ‘Securitization’ of Climate Change to ‘Climatization’ of the Security Field,” 185.
36 “Greening Peacekeeping: The Environmental Impact of UN Peace Operations.”
37 Dresse et al., “Environmental Peacebuilding: Towards a Theoretical Framework.”
38 Maertens and Shoshan, “Greening Peacekeeping: The Environmental Impact of UN Peace Operations,” 302.
39 Ravier et al., “Environmental Experiences and Developments in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations,” 198.
40 Waleij, “Crime, Credibility, and Effective Peacekeeping,”.
41 This is an elaboration of data available from: UNEP, “Greening the Blue,” 2019.
42 Maertens and Shoshan, “Greening Peacekeeping: The Environmental Impact of UN Peace Operations.”
43 This definition of climate-sensitive programming mirrors the one of conflict-sensitive programming Tänzler, Carius, and Achim, “The Need for Conflict-Sensitive Adaptation to Climate Change,”.
44 UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library, “UN Digital Library System,” accessed June 23, 2021, https://digitallibrary.un.org.
45 “Peace & Security Data Hub,” accessed November 28, 2021, https://psdata.un.org/.
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48 Scartozzi, “Climate Change in the UN Security Council.”
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50 UNSC, “Resolution 2349,” S/RES/2349, March 31, 2017, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/863830.
51 UNSC, “Statement by the President of the Security Council,” S/PRST/2018/17, August 10, 2018, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1638032.
52 UNSC, “Statement by the President of the Security Council,” S/PRST/2018/16, August 10, 2018, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1638031.
53 UNSC, “Resolution 2423,” S/RES/2423, June 28, 2018, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1631974.
54 UNSC, “Resolution 2576,” S/RES/2576, May 27, 2021, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3927744.
55 UNSC.
56 UNSC, “Resolution 2592,” S/RES/2592, August 30, 2021, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3938161.
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58 Conca, “Is There a Role for the UN Security Council on Climate Change?,” 4; Scartozzi, “The UN Security Council at a Turning Point: Securitisation or Climatisation?,” Toda Peace Institute, March 13, 2021, https://toda.org/global-outlook/the-un-security-council-at-a-turning-point-securitisation-or-climatisation.html.
59 DPO, “Strategic Plan 2020-2022” (New York: United Nations, 2020), https://dppa.un.org/en/strategic-plan-2020-2022.
60 DPPA, “Addressing the Impact of Climate Change on Peace and Security,” 2021, https://dppa.un.org/en/climate-peace-security.
61 Schaar, “Addressing Climate-Related Security Risks in the Middle East ad North Africa,”; DPPA, “Addressing the Impact of Climate Change on Peace and Security.”
62 UNEP, “Climate Change Security Poster,” 2008, https://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/ClimateChange_Security_Poster.pdf; General Assembly, “Report of the Secretary-General (Climate Change and Its Possible Security Implications)” (New York: UN, 2009), https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/509/46/PDF/N0950946.pdf?OpenElement; UNSC, “Statement by the President of the Security Council (2011/15),” S/PRST/2011/15, July 20, 2011.
63 UNEP, Greening the Blue Helmets: Environment, Natural Resources and UN Peacekeeping Operations (Geneva, 2012); UNEP and Adelphi, “A New Climate for Peace,” 2015, https://climate-diplomacy.org/magazine/conflict/new-climate-peace.
64 UNEP, “Climate Change and Security,” 2017, https://open.unep.org/project/PIMS-01970.
65 UNEP and Adelphi, “Climate Change and Security Project: Interim Progress Report March-October 2021” (Geneva: UNEP, 2021).
66 GEO-GEE, “Strata: UNEP’s Earth Stress Monitor,” The University of Edinburgh, 2021, https://www.ed.ac.uk/bayes/about-us/our-work/space-and-satellites/news/geo-gee-project.
67 DPPA, “Addressing the Impact of Climate Change on Peace and Security.”
68 DPPA, UNEP, and UNDP, “CSM Toolbox Briefing Note” (New York: United Nations, 2021), https://dppa.un.org/sites/default/files/csm_toolbox-1-briefing_note.pdf; DPPA, UNEP, and UNDP, “CSM Toolbox Conceptual Approach” (New York: United Nations, 2021), https://dppa.un.org/sites/default/files/csm_toolbox-2-conceptual_approach.pdf; DPPA, UNEP, and UNDP, “CSM Toolbox Data Sources” (New York: United Nations, 2021), https://dppa.un.org/sites/default/files/csm_toolbox-3-data_sources.pdf; DPPA, UNEP, and UNDP, “CSM Toolbox Checklist” (New York: United Nations, 2021), https://dppa.un.org/sites/default/files/csm_toolbox-4-checklist.pdf.
69 Climate Security Mechanism, “UN Community of Practice on Climate Security on Climate Security Board,” 2021, https://trello.com/c/I04RFeqr/150-un-community-of-practice-on-climate-security.
70 Interview with an official from UNEP, Nov. 2021
71 edX, “Environmental Security and Sustaining Peace,” edX, 2019, https://www.edx.org/course/environmental-security-and-sustaining-peace.
72 UNEP, “Climate Change, Peace and Security: Understanding Climate-Related Security Risks Through an Integrated Lens,” 2021, https://unccelearn.org/course/view.php?id=118&page=overview.
73 Interview with an official from UNEP, Nov. 2021
74 UNSSC, “Climate Sensitive Programming for Sustaining Peace,” 2020, https://www.unssc.org/courses/climate-sensitive-programming-sustaining-peace-september-october/.
75 DPO and DFS, “Environmental Policy for UN Field Missions” (New York: UN, June 2009).
76 DOS, “Environment Strategy for Peace Operations” (New York: United Nations, 2020), https://operationalsupport.un.org/sites/default/files/190228_dos_environment_strategy_execsumv4.pdf.
77 UNEP, “UN Peace Operations Rapid Environment and Climate Technical Assistance Facility - REACT,” 2016, https://open.unep.org/project/PIMS-01954.
78 Interview with an official from UNEP, Nov. 2021
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80 PBF, “Strategy 2020-2024” (New York: UN, 2020), https://www.un.org/peacebuilding/sites/www.un.org.peacebuilding/files/documents/pbf_strategy_2020-2024_final.pdf.
81 Interview with an official from UNEP, Nov. 2021
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83 Interview with an official from UNEP, Nov. 2021
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91 Secretary-General, “Activities of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel,” December 30, 2019; Secretary-General, “Report of the Secretary-General on the Activities of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel. S/2020/1293.”
92 Secretary-General, “Activities of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel,” July 5, 2019.
93 Interview with an official from UNEP, Nov. 2021.
94 Boxenbaum, and Jonsson. “Isomorphism, Diffusion and Decoupling: Concept Evolution and Theoretical Challenges,” 77.
95 Boxenbaum and Jonsson.
96 Meyer and Rowan, “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.”
97 “Peacekeeping: Organized Hypocrisy?,” 13.
98 Lipson, 19.
99 Conca, “Is There a Role for the UN Security Council on Climate Change?”; Judith Nora Hardt and Alina Viehoff, “A Climate for Change in the UN Security Council?,” 2020, 152; Lucile Maertens, “Climatizing the UN Security Council,” International Politics, February 4, 2021.
100 Scartozzi, “The UN Security Council at a Turning Point.”
101 Scartozzi.
102 There have been cases where infrastructures build by peacekeepers have been co-managed or left in control of host countries (e.g., a municipal wastewater plant in Lebanon and a waste water plant in Mali). Yet, these cases remain an exception, not the norm.
103 “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” 357.
104 357.
105 Meyer and Rowan, “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.”
106 Lipson, “Peacekeeping: Organized Hypocrisy?”
107 88 studies were found searching the Web of Science for: TI = (peacekeeping OR "peace enforcement" OR peacemaking OR peacebuilding OR peace-building OR "peace operation*" OR "conflict prevention") AND TI = (environment* OR climat*). The bibliometric data was processed with VosViewer and Gephi: Nees Jan van Eck and Ludo Waltman, VOSviewer, version 1.6.8, Windows 10 (Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS): Leiden University, 2019), www.vosviewer.com; Gephi Consortium, Gephi, version 0.9.3 (Paris, 2017), https://github.com/gephi/gephi. .a shows cited references with a minimum of 8 citations (full counting). Node size equals citations and color clustering. .b shows the top 60 percent of words in abstracts with a minimum of 4 occurrences (binary counting). Node size equals occurrences and color (blue to green) equals the number of citations.
108 Emissions data retrieved from Greening the Blue reports: UNEP, “Greening the Blue” (Geneva, 2016); UNEP, “Greening the Blue” (Geneva, 2017); UNEP, “Greening the Blue” (Geneva, 2018); UNEP, “Greening the Blue” (Geneva, 2019); UNEP, “Greening the Blue” (Geneva, 2020); UNEP, “Greening the Blue” (Geneva, 2021). Hydrological, meteorological, climatological disasters retrieved from EM-DAT: Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, “EM-DAT | The International Disasters Database,” accessed November 28, 2021, https://emdat.be/. Vulnerability and readiness (averaged for the 2009–2019 period) retrieved from the ND-GAIN Index: University of Notre Dame, “Country Index,” Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, accessed October 11, 2021, https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/download-data/. According to the ND-GAIN Index, vulnerability "measures a country's exposure, sensitivity and capacity to adapt to the negative effects of climate change," while readiness "measures a country's ability to leverage investments and convert them to adaptation action."
109 Deployed number of personnel as of September 2021: “Peace & Security Data Hub.” The data on climate change vulnerability was retrieved from the ND-GAIN Index University of Notre Dame, “Country Index.” The vulnerability ranking (plotted in shade of blue on the map) is a country-level average for the 2007–2019 period.
110 This image shows how many times climate change was featured in the reports of the Secretary General. A counts the words 'climate change' and 'global warming'. B counts occurrences of the word 'climate' near (7 words radius) one of the following: 'risk multiplier', 'threat multiplier', 'violence', 'conflict', 'peace', and 'security'. C counts occurrences of the word 'climate' near one of the following: 'risk reduction', 'management', 'assessment', 'sensitivity'. D counts occurrences of the word 'climate' near one of the following: 'adaptation', 'mitigation', 'resilience', 'capacity building'.
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Notes on contributors
Cesare M. Scartozzi
Cesare M. Scartozzi is a researcher and consultant on climate change, public policy, and non-traditional security. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Tokyo. A list of his publications is available at www.scartozzi.eu.