Arria-formula Meeting: Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace and Security

Mr President,

I want to start by thanking you and the United Arab Emirates for organizing this timely meeting.

First, let me reiterate that Sweden condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing Russian military aggression against Ukraine. It is a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter.

Furthermore, this aggression by Russia can exacerbate one of the negative effects of climate change: food insecurity. As an example, the World Food Programme draws more than fifty per cent of its wheat from Ukraine. If the war causes Ukraine’s fields to lie fallow this year, the WFP will face higher costs and, consequently, help fewer people in need. Not only does the Ukrainian people suffer immensely – this war threatens peace, security, and development all over the world.

Mr President,

The linkages between climate change and security are increasingly being recognized. Sweden has for a long time underscored the need to integrate a climate perspective into crisis prevention and peacebuilding efforts, and to apply a conflict perspective into our efforts fighting climate change.

The Swedish Government takes its responsibility to address climate change and its adverse effects seriously. Let me highlight three points on how:

First, Sweden is one of the largest donors to both the Global Environmental Facility and the Green Climate Fund, two of the world’s largest climate finance providers. In fragile settings, challenges associated with security risks to staff and local communities can weaken the effectiveness of these and other funds’ programs. We stress the importance of having direct references to conflict and insecurity integrated into the overall programming of the funds.

Second, Sweden will increase its support to the UN's Climate Security Mechanism to 1.6 million USD in 2022. Sweden will also finance four new UNDP positions on four continents, which will build a high calibre team of climate and security risk specialists at the regional level.

Third, Sweden is an important contributor to the UN Peacebuilding Fund and a close partner to DPPA, where climate security is increasingly considered an integral part. We need to strengthen cooperation to enhance synergies between key actors on country level, not least the UN and the World Bank. Towards this end, Sweden has launched the Good Peacebuilding Financing initiative, where climate and security is key.

Mr President,

Consequences of climate change are not gender neutral. We need to strengthen international and national frameworks on the intersection between gender equality and climate security. Giving climate security a more prominent place in the Women, Peace, and Security agenda is an important step towards this end. 

In the OSCE, a first Ministerial decision on climate change was adopted in Stockholm in December. It lays the ground for the world’s largest regional security organization to work on the links between climate change and security.

Our work in the UN and the OSCE will be followed up during our EU Presidency in 2023. An important stepping stone towards this will be the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development in late May, which will focus on climate security.

Thank you.