Breaking Silos: Climate Change, Security, and Humanitarian Action

The document outlines the challenges and opportunities in coordinating climate, security, and humanitarian actions, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings. It highlights gaps in interagency coordination, the limitations of short-term planning cycles, and the inadequacy of current international financial institution funding mechanisms for volatile regions. The briefing emphasizes the need for disaggregated data, inclusive case studies, and the integration of humanitarian 'demand signals' into security analysis to improve long-term resilience and prevent maladaptation.

• Climate finance is disproportionately absent from the most fragile states, with data indicating that the more fragile a state is, the less climate finance it receives.
• Current funding structures from international financial institutions (IFIs) are not fit-for-purpose for conflict-sensitive settings because they often lack clear policies on addressing the climate-conflict nexus and utilize rigid processes unsuitable for volatile environments.
• There is a significant gap in policy development and data for the medium term, as security and humanitarian planning often focus on 2-5 year windows, while scientific models target either very short-term (under 2 years) or long-term (over 20 years) impacts.
• Effective data use is hindered by a tendency for organizations to create new models rather than sharing and refining existing ones, and there is a critical need for disaggregated data to avoid missing the differentiated impacts of climate change on specific communities based on race, gender, religion, or geography.
• Humanitarian 'demand signals', such as increased requests for food aid, should be used as indicators of climate security risk to trigger more holistic policies and pre-crisis planning.
• The use of military actors in disaster response presents a tension between the risk of 'securitization' that could exacerbate local vulnerabilities and the fact that military infrastructure, such as that built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, can be highly resilient and provide critical shelter during crises.

APA

Barron, E., Hugh, B., & Portillo-Taylor, A. (2023). Breaking Silos: Climate Change, Security, and Humanitarian Action. The Council on Strategic Risks. https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/41-BreakingSilos.pdf

Chicago

Barron, Elsa, Brigitte Hugh, and Alejandra Portillo-Taylor. Breaking Silos: Climate Change, Security, and Humanitarian Action. The Council on Strategic Risks, 2023. https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/41-BreakingSilos.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Barron |first1=Elsa |last2=Hugh |first2=Brigitte |last3=Portillo-Taylor |first3=Alejandra |title=Breaking Silos: Climate Change, Security, and Humanitarian Action |publisher=The Council on Strategic Risks |date=31 January 2023 |url=https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/41-BreakingSilos.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barron2023breaking, author = {Barron, Elsa and Hugh, Brigitte and Portillo-Taylor, Alejandra}, title = {{Breaking Silos: Climate Change, Security, and Humanitarian Action}}, institution = {The Council on Strategic Risks}, year = {2023}, month = jan, url = {https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/41-BreakingSilos.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }