Earlier this month, both the Berlin Climate Security Conference and the Berlin Peace Dialogue took place at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. Both conferences brought together international organizations, academic experts, government officials and practitioners from their respective fields. The organizers brought speakers from both conferences together in order to facilitate exchange between the more peacekeeping oriented crowd of the Berlin Peace Dialogue and the climate security focused group of the Berlin Climate Security Conference.
At the Berlin Peace Dialogue, organized by the Advisory Board on Civilian Crisis Prevention, a panel was held on the concept of Environmental Peacebuilding. The session was moderated by Shirin Reuvers, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Berghof Foundation and was entitled “Hope in the Climate Crisis? Environmental Peacebuilding as an instrument of prevention and conflict management”. Panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities with regards to this concept and brought in different perspectives from the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, Palestine, the Sahel, and Central Asia. Doctoral researcher and project coordinator at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Stefanie Wesch, elaborated on best practice examples form the Central Asian region and highlighted some of the efforts undertaken under the umbrella of the Green Central Asia Initiative. Other panelists included Dr Kira Vinke, Co-Chair of the Advisory Board, Head of the Center for Climate & Foreign Policy, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Arrliya Sugal, Junior Project Manager, Sub-Saharan African Unit, Berghof Foundation, Nada Majdalani, Director of Palestine Office, EcoPeace Middle East and Dr Antje Herrberg, Chief of Staff, EUCAP Sahel Niger.
