Building back better: Climate foreign policy and climate neutrality

Since at least 2019, the climate crisis has occupied a central place in German politics and society, but also in global awareness. In response to societal attention and increasingly alarming scientific findings, climate protection has been anchored as a central social task at the German and European level. At the same time, however, it is clear that an effective response to the crisis requires global cooperation.

Against this background, the project "Building back better: Foreign policy responses to the climate crisis", supported by the Federal Foreign Office, aimed to further develop the foreign policy agenda for climate protection and climate impacts. On the one hand, this includeed supporting international climate policy and linking it to relevant multilateral and regional forums in order to strengthen dialogue with key political actors at the inter- and transnational levels. On the other hand, this includeed a goal of German foreign climate policy that has been declared as central, namely to take a more systematic look at the security policy consequences of climate change and to identify responses to this challenge.

Within the framework of various studies, concept and input papers as well as expert workshops and other dialogue events, adelphi discussed and analysed priority issues of foreign climate policy – for example, the foreign policy implementation of the European Green Deal, the potential for new transformation partnerships, options for transatlantic foreign climate policy as well as the geopolitical significance of global trends such as decarbonisation, flight and migration, and digitalisation – and developed proposals for foreign policy approaches based on these. In addition, adelphi continued proven networking approaches such as the Berlin Climate and Security Conference and the Climate Security Expert Network and supplemented these with further initiatives to strengthen climate security within the framework of the United Nations and at the regional level. Further elements of the project were online offers and instruments of digital communication, in particular the Climate Diplomacy Platform with its integrated factbook on environment, conflict and cooperation; an interactive online exhibition; climate and conflict-related podcasts and short videos; as well as the regular dispatch of newsletters and the promotion of relevant information on Twitter, all of which strengthend the visibility of climate diplomacy and contributed to raising public awareness.