The future of Peacebuilding: climate-related security risks and peacebuilding efforts in Africa.

The impacts of climate change are increasingly shaping global peace and security. Effective peacebuilding requires the incorporation of climate sensitivity into peacebuilding efforts so as to anticipate the challenges and respond to them in a timely way. Millions of people around the world are already experiencing its effects, both through slow onset changes such as temperature increase, desertification and sea level rise, and rapid onset events such as floods, heat waves and drought. The effects of climate and environmental changes extend beyond the domain of the environment and into the political and social realm. These effects do not automatically turn into security risks. However, through interactions with existing social, economic and demographic pressures, climate change can multiply risks, exacerbate drivers of insecurity and threaten efforts to prevent conflict and sustain peace. With this in mind, this paper looks into the future of peace building with regards to climate related security risks and peace building efforts in Africa drawing lessons from what is obtaining in some African Countries. Lastly, the paper also gives policy recommendations to African governments on the possible policy reforms that would strengthen institutions to ensure sustainable peace in the face of climate change and its associated risks.


Introduction
Nature is ultimately reliant on humans and human cultures. Food, water, energy, and shelter are all vital parts of human life that originate in nature. Humans live in a variety of climatic and environmental situations. Drought, severe rains, wildfires, and cyclones are only some of the security threats that have arisen as a result of these numerous situations. Furthermore, people have influenced nature throughout history. However, as human activities modify the earth's climate system, we are seeing a shift in both the scale and the pace of this alteration. This is the basis for the claim that we have reached a new epoch, the Anthropocene (Waters, 2016). This not only affects all forms of natural processes currently occurring, but also introduces new elements like as rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and seas, as well as unprecedented sea level rise (Oppenheimer, 2014).
Given this alteration in the earth"s climate system, and the fundamental impacts that will follow for the biosphere and human societies, climate change is increasingly being treated as a security risk. Its diverse impacts mean that the security risks that might follow on climate change differ in character. The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that climate change will, among other things, progressively threaten human security, lead to forms of migration that compromise human security, contribute to factors that increase the risk of violent conflict, affect vital transport, water and energy infrastructure, and increasingly shape conditions of security and national security policies (Adger, 2014). Consequently, different policy areas such as foreign affairs, development cooperation, defense, humanitarian aid, trade, the economy and agriculture are being or will be affected in various ways by climate change. The success of mitigating climate change and developing adaptive capacity to its impacts will be crucial to the ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This article offers an overview of the security risks posed by climate change and the responses to these risks by various organizations. The overall aim is to provide practical alternatives on how to address and work with climate-related security risks in order to enhance peacebuilding efforts in Africa. It does this, first, by analyzing the diversity of the security risks posed by climate change, in order to consolidate the knowledge of these risks; and, second, by investigating how policymakers and practitioners integrate these risks into their policies and practical work. The selected organizations that are the focus of this study have a mandate for security policy, foreign affairs and development cooperation. The article provides a deepened understanding of the opportunities and challenges of different integration strategies. In particular, the authors exclusively demonstrate the importance of working in a more integrated and context-sensitive manner. There is no doubt that this knowledge is essential to enabling policymakers to (a) accurately assess the value of current strategies in this regard, and (b) to identify how policies, strategic guidance, internal organization and procedures could be improved in order to better respond to the security risks posed by climate change.
Defining key concepts Central to a good conceptual evaluation in projecting the future of peacebuilding in relation to climate related risks and peacebuilding in Africa is an in-depth understanding of the key concepts involved. This section makes provision for the definitions of the key terms which are fundamental to this paper. Three terms are climate related security risks, climate change and peacebuilding. Besides these three concepts, other concepts will be explained where they are used for the first time.

A. Climate-related security risks
In this article, climate-related security risks are defined using a comprehensive security approach that includes human, community, state and international security (Krampe and Mobjörk, 2018). Such an approach is needed because climate-related security risks are multifaceted (i.e. involve different consequences, such as drought, floods and sea-level rise) and can simultaneously undermine the security of different reference objects (e.g. humans, communities, states, the international system, the environment and ecology). Moreover, climate-related security risks span different policy areas, such as foreign, military, development, economy and environment. As observed by Hehazi, Krampe and Smith, this multifaceted and multidimensional character of climate-related security risks calls for scrutinization of the framing of security (i.e. analyses of how governments and organizations are responding to climate-related security risks should also investigate how these risks are understood in these institutions, because this is likely to explain different policy outcomes) (Hegazi, Krampe and Smith, 2021).

B. Climate Change
Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistic al tests) by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties and that persists for an extended p eriod, typically decades or longer, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPC C). Climate change can be caused by natural internal processes or external forcings such as solar cycl e modulation, volcanic eruptions, and longterm human changes in atmospheric composition or land use. Note that climate change is defined in Article 1 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as "a change in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods." As a result, the UNFCCC distinguishes between climate change caused by human activities modifying atmospheric composition and climate variability caused by natural factors (Mathews, 2018).'

C. Peacebuilding
Peacebuilding is defined by the United Nations as a long-term and complicated process aimed at establishing the circumstances for long-term peace. Peacebuilding primarily strives to reduce the danger of conflict escalation or reoccurrence by enhancing national conflict management skills at all levels, as well as to establish the groundwork for long-term peace and development.

Overview of different Climate-Related Security Risks in Africa.
Climate-related security threats are reshaping the security environment in which multinational peacebuilding operations are taking place. Indeed, by December 2020, 80 percent of UN multinational peacekeeping soldiers will be stationed in countries that have been identified as the most vulnerable to climate change (Krampe, 2021). While today's human security threats are progressively becoming tomorrow's difficult security concerns, the answers aren't entirely or even mostly military. As a result, identifying what extra actions, authorities, or alliances are necessary to plan for and handle climate-related security concerns in mission environments, particularly in Africa, is critical. This is problematic, since the dual burden of climate change and violent conflict in these communities has the potential to extend the peace-building process and exacerbate the human costs of war. Climate change and poor governance both contribute to the erosion of human security and the escalation of people's problems in Mali. Many people's livelihoods are impacted by reliance on natural resources, increasing temperatures, droughts, and flooding, while inadequate governance and infrastructure make longterm solutions challenging. This poses a significant obstacle to peacebuilding (Hegazi, Krampe and Smith, 2021).

Peacebuilding efforts towards an integrated approach
Climate-related security risks are addressed, and will continue to be addressed, in numerous ways. Nevertheless, since many of these security risks are also linked to each other, a bridge is needed between the different approaches. Responses in one area can also affect other areas. To respond properly to climaterelated security risks, therefore, we need to address this interplay so that measures taken will reduce insecurities. This lies behind the choice of a risk-based approach recognizing the multifaceted and multidimensional character of climate risks and the call for "integrated approaches" as a way to respond to these risks.
Climate and security risks span various policy areas, such as development, foreign policy, disaster risk reduction and security. The cross-sectorial impacts that characterize climate change combined with the lack of conceptual coherence on how to frame these impacts, mean that policy communities are still divided into silos and practitioners think and act in terms of their own mandate and issue-area. Our analysis confirms that a culture of sharing and learning, complemented by support and control measures, will be crucial for moving from theory to practice. Firm political leadership that provides incentives to overcome policy silos will also play an important role in achieving an integrated approach. For example, one strategy for overcoming the policy silos has been the creation of interdepartmental working groups, while another has been to take assistance of external expert units or consultancies to coordinate the work. Even though interdepartmental working groups can be time-consuming, they are important for identifying common ground between different units or policy communities. The assistance of external expert units can offer valuable expertise and human resources while also ensuring that an issue is managed in a coherent and sustainable manner.
Neither the climate nor human societies are static; they are dynamic and alter over time. The impacts that climate has on human societies are also dependent on context-specific vulnerabilities. The importance of knowledge has been emphasized throughout this paper, and the collective amount of knowledge on climaterelated security risks is increasing rapidly. Despite this, there are and will continue to be uncertainties regarding, for instance, the magnitude of the security risks posed by climate change. One reason for this is that these risks are also dependent on the responses made. In aiming to reduce insecurities, it is crucial that the uncertainties surrounding climate change and climate-related security risks do not lead to inaction. Instead, responses are needed that both address the need to reduce security risks and increase knowledge on the pathways linking climate-related change to increased insecurity. These can inform subsequent policy responses. This calls for iterative processes between context-specific analyses and theory development as well as cooperation between policymakers, practitioners and researchers. We highlight below some suggestions that are important for promoting this.

Suggestions for the African Policy Context
The generic conclusions about adequately addressing the climate related security risks as regards to the future of peace building have implications for the African context. We conclude by making some suggestions for concrete measures that could be taken by the African Government system.
Set up an interdepartmental working group (IWG) for climate-related security risks. There is a clear need to coordinate the work of different government departments. The establishment of an IWG for climate-related security risks would hence strengthen the African Government"s work and could become a hub for the development of African policy on climate-related security risks and suggest long-term and short-term priorities. The IWG could also provide support for African delegations to international organizations such as the EU and the UN. The IWG would probably need a small secretariat.
Set up an external expert unit that supports the government and relevant agencies by providing policy relevant analysis on climate-related security risks. Knowledge development on the impacts of climate change and the practical experience of addressing these challenges is advancing rapidly. An important function of such a unit would be to act as a bridge between research and policy. It takes several years to build up an expert unit, so long-term core funding will be needed. The expert unit could fulfill several roles: supporting the IWG with policy relevant analysis, arranging annual conferences for African policy actors and practitioners, arranging training courses for staff, and contributing to the establishment of relevant networks internationally.
Establish training courses for staff and policy advisers across departments and agencies. High-level strategies are undoubtedly important for setting priorities, but without practical guidance these strategies are unlikely to be implemented effectively. Regular training courses for staff and policy advisers could play an important role in facilitating the operationalization of strategies into concrete work in sub-areas. In addition, such training could strengthen joint understanding between different policy and issue areas and assist in the reconciliation of different discourses.