Climate security for sustaining peace

Funded by DGD, the KLIMSEC team is conducting policy supporting research on the topic of climate and security. Indeed climate change can be a trigger to conflict and vice versa, conflict can induce environmental degradation and climate change. KLIMSEC will organize a series of seminars in the context of this research to build awareness and capacity building on the topic of climate and security. Climate change is having a negative impact on the living conditions and the environment especially in Africa. To what extent does it also affect conflicts and security? What role can the Belgium Development Aid and its partners play?

On the program:

This second webinar will focus on ecological security, the often overlooked hydrological cycle in climate change at a continental scale and more holistic approaches to peacemaking and development strategies to address drivers of environmental change.

Short Bio:

Olivia Lazard is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of climate, the transition ushered by climate change, and the risks of conflict and fragility associated to climate change and environmental collapse. 

Olivia is an environmental peacemaking and mediation practitioner as well as a researcher. She has over twelve years of experience in the peacemaking sector at field and policy levels. With an original specialization in the political economy of conflicts, she has worked for various NGOs, the UN, the EU, and donor states in the Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan and North Africa, and parts of Asia. In her fieldwork, her focus was to understand how globalization and the international political economy shaped patterns of violence and vulnerability patterns as well as formed new types of conflict systems that our international governance architecture has difficulty tackling with agility. It is also through fieldwork that she came to observe the ways in which the plundering of ecosystems feeds conflict systems across the world and contributes to climate disruptions. 

Her research at the field level and on thematic issues has led to support the European External Action Service in integrating environmental peacemaking as part of their mediation toolkit. Prior to joining Carnegie Europe, Olivia set up her own consultancy firm, Peace in Design Consulting, which remains exclusively active in conflict and fragile zones. 

Practical:

The seminar will be held on-line and in English, but questions and discussion in Dutch or French are very welcome. There will be ample time for questions and discussion.

Date, time and place: 22 January 2020, 10:30-11:30

Registration:

Participation is free, but please register upfront by using the online form available at  https://ees.kuleuven.be/apps/klimsec-seminar-20210122/registration/

You will be sent a ZOOM link after registration.