Climate Security in Fragile States : Case and Efforts in Central Africa

This short paper is based on a presentation titled “Climate Security in Central Africa", given virtually in July 2021, to form part of a lecture series titled “Linkage between human security and regional security in Africa" at the Aoyama Centre for International Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University. The main objective of the presentation was to set out some of the basics of climate security, including how the topic has continued to gain momentum at the Security Council of the United Nations (UN). The text subsequently gives an account of the climate change situation in Central Africa, i.e. one of the regions in the world more severely affected by climate change, and its implications for existing fragilities on the ground, due also to generally low coping capacities available. The paper argues that addressing climate security is no easy task and requires enhanced cross-sectoral efforts across local, national and transnational levels. Further, addressing climate security in Central Africa merits a strong international partnership, taking into account that Central Africa, i.e. the region hosting the Congo Basin rainforest, can play a key role in the global effort for climate change mitigation, thereby safeguarding human security worldwide.