Our publishing unit produces accessible publications translating research on a needs basis,
as well as media appropriate to various contexts, in accordance with international editorial
production benchmarks. Our aim is to communicate effectively at a range of levels, providing
stakeholders with knowledge and information that is reliable, useful, timely, and accessible.
Thought leadership, underpinned by targeted stakeholder engagement, guides the translation of
scientific evidence into credible, useful, relevant and accessible knowledge products, either
demand-driven or generated out of our own internal engagement with the key programme areas
upon which our work is focused.
OneWorld Publications
Internationally, scientific and policy debates on the security implications of climate change
have recently gained great momentum. Today, there is little doubt that climate change poses
one of the key challenges for global economic development and human wellbeing and may put
peace and security at risk, as natural resources such as water and food become scarce.
This outcome statement follows on Barnett and Adger’s framework on climate change and security
that integrates three bodies of research (Barnett, 2007): vulnerabilities of local and social
groups to climate change, livelihoods, security and conflicts and the role of the state in
development and peacemaking, peace-building and conflict transformation.
Climate change poses many serious risks, including increasing food shortages and
terri-torial losses caused by rising sea levels. A debate on the 20th of May in
New York high-lighted the potential implications of these two factors for global\
peace and security.
Knowledge for Adaptation Series Publications
This report investigates the relationships between the millennium development goals(MDGs) and
projected climate change in southern Africa. The analysis rests on four core themes, namely
water resources, food security, health and energy supply.
This report was built around three fundamental elements: qualitative assessment,scenario
analysis and representative basin case studies. Three river basins, the okavango, zambezi
and limpopo, were selected, using a variety of key criteria.
Climate Change Policy Brief Series
This brief focuses more on the impacts of climate on production, and further work is required
to develop understanding and policy responses to climate impacts on the other food security
components (Ziervogel and Ericksen, 2010).
The Adaptation Fund (AF), operational since 2009, and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), to be
operational in the near future, are climate finance mechanisms designed by the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It is now well established that national economies are linked closely to fresh water
availability, and this is especially relevant in arid and semi-arid regions and countries
relying heavily on hydropower.
Research Brief Series
Southern Africa will not uniformly feel the impacts of future climate change. Countries
in the region have different challenges and vary in their ability to adapt to changing
climate and extreme weather conditions. RCCP scientists have explored the use of mapping
as a tool for identifying southern Africa’s vulnerability hotspots and its readiness to
deal with climate change.
Hard-won progress toward the MDGs in southern Africa is at risk not only from the global
economic crisis but also from climate change, via the climate-sensitive development drivers
water, energy, food and health. The region needs to ‘climate-proof’ its development
goals.
Climate change is playing a significant role in economic and human development and security,
much of it mediated through the impact of changes to water resources.
Rain-fed crops in southern Africa will be severely impacted by climate change, causing
yield reductions. Traditional African crops and hardier new varieties offer advantages
over conventional maize varieties.
Climate change will affect food security in southern Africa directly and indirectly. Current
gains in food production look likely to reverse, adding to increasing reliance on food imports.
People at risk are those who are already food-insecure.
Dealing with the adverse effects of climate change on agricultural production and food
security in the region will require dismantling obstacles to regional trade to increase
the flow of agricultural commodities between countries in the region, says a report on
hunger and food security in southern Africa.
More than half the population of southern Africa will be living in urban areas by 2030,
says UN Habitat. Urban areas suffer from particular vulnerabilities to climate change—
from lack of water and poor sanitation, to flooding, health threats and any number of
other disasters.
Women and unemployed youth are particularly at risk from the fallout of climate change in
southern Africa. However, these two groups are a source of talent and energy, and should be
developed to strengthen communities as climate change progressively becomes a daily reality.
African states have not had much success in accessing large financial pledges by developed
countries to finance climate change in poor countries. Targeted capacity building and
institutional linking of science, vulnerability, project design and funding will assist
in this process.
Negotiators Index Series
Prepared for the African group of negotiators by the regional climate change programme (RCCP).
