20.10.2025
Global

Highlight: Conflict-sensitive and peace positive climate finance

Countries facing climate-related security and peace risks- whether fragile and conflict-affected states, post-conflict contexts, or middle-income countries- are at the frontlines where climate action is both most urgently needed and most impactful. When climate finance fails to reach those who need it the most, it not only leaves immediate climate risks unaddressed but can lead to broader instability. When these states are excluded from climate funding mechanisms, they might resort to loans and debt instruments, further increasing already substantial financial burdens. As these countries accumulate climate-related debt whilst facing rising borrowing costs, the risk of destabilising debt defaults increases which could have far-reaching consequences beyond the defaulting countries.

Enabling climate financing in countries that are already facing or projected to face climate-related security and peace risks requires a five-fold approach. However, the effectiveness of this approach depends on addressing a critical barrier: high transaction costs when applying for and implementing climate finance, placing excessive operational burdens on applicant countries.

1. Policy frameworks and strategies

Clear policy frameworks and strategies that explicitly address climate-related peace and security risks, integrated into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), are needed to promote stability and resilience. Such frameworks do not only provide coherent guidance for domestic implementation but also signal commitment to potential donors and investors, making them essential for attracting international support and financing.

2. Adaptive and flexible funding mechanisms 

Adaptive and flexible funding is of key importance in contexts where conditions tend to change rapidly. The swift access to resources when and where they are most needed allows for the necessary agility to navigate complex challenges and unforeseen circumstances. Critically, peace objectives should be embedded directly into funding criteria, ensuring that climate finance actively contributes to stability rather than inadvertently fuelling tensions. This includes financing for prevention and early intervention, not merely responding to active conflicts when options are constrained and costs have increased.

Translating these principles into practice requires innovative financing mechanisms. Emerging approaches include peace renewable energy credits that monetise the social and economic benefits of renewable energy projects in fragile, energy-scarce regions. By adding to the standard Energy Attribute Certificate (EAC) market, these credits could fund high-impact projects in conflict-affected areas. Peace bonds are another option, with proceeds being exclusively dedicated to financing projects that contribute to peace and stability. Equally critical is clearly defining the private sector's role in these financing structures.

3. Building the investment and business case

Conflict-sensitive climate initiatives have shown to deliver both more effective climate action and deliver peace benefits. Whilst each initiative must tailor interventions/strategies to context-specific climate-security risks, there are general entry points identified through evidence and programming:

  • Improving natural resource access and management: Builds peace via cooperation between communities and serves as the foundation for climate adaptation, directly addressing resource conflicts as demonstrated by the Weathering Risk Peace Pillar projects in the Bay of Bengal and Nigeria
  • Climate-resilient and diverse livelihoods: Potential for demobilisation and reduced recruitment into armed groups. Effectiveness requires going beyond livelihoods to address social cohesion, governance and service delivery.
  • Peace-positive climate change adaptation: Rebuilds trust between communities and the government, particularly when state security forces are involved in disaster response. An example includes the joint work between adelphi and UNEP to support disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration in Nepal.

In addition to building the investment case, it is key to understand that climate change creates huge economic losses, lowering income in all countries and across all sectors, affecting industries ranging from transport to manufacturing and retail. In this context, climate investment is no longer optional but a business imperative. Programmatic work under the Weathering Risk Peace Pillar can contribute to the development of robust metrics and peace-and sector-specific indicators to build the business case for stability and attract private and blended finance beyond traditional value chains, including to geographies outside of conventional private enterprise operations. 

adelphi’s work could inform conflict-sensitive value chain collaboration and the untapped potential of engaging private sectors, such as mining and resource extraction. Given the accelerating green mineral extraction for the energy transition, informing these sectors through climate and conflict sensitivity lenses becomes particularly urgent.

4. Core tools and operating principles

Tools and approaches that are conflict-sensitive (do no harm) and have a pro-peace design (contribute to peace) are tested and available. Effective integrated programming starts with a rigorous analysis, built on clear assumptions, indicators and measurement frameworks. The Weathering Risk methodology provides a conflict-sensitive analytical framework that allows for a granular understanding of the relationship between environmental change and insecurity in a given context, whilst identifying entry points for action. Building on such analysis, Theories of Change should translate these entry points and field experience into actionable pathways, with monitoring and evaluation focusing on measuring climate, peace, and inclusion outcomes jointly. 

Two operating principles are fundamental to translating these tools into impact. First, inclusion must be operationalised from analysis to implementation, whereby the participation and benefit-sharing for women, youth, persons with disabilities, and indigenous and local communities is promoted. Second, cross-sectoral cooperation should be structured through working groups and joint implementation, with experts from climate and peacebuilding/conflict fields working together.

5. Capacities and support services

Training and support services have proven to be key in enabling and scaling up integrated programming. adelphi develops tailored trainings that support policymakers and implementing partners in integrating climate security risk analysis into strategic and operational processes. Examples include ready-to-use, modular climate security training programme, and the online course “Understanding Climate-Related Security Risks Through an Integrated Lens” co-developed with UN organisations.

Beyond standalone trainings, adelphi provides support services that accompany actors through the full programming cycle. This includes technical assistance for analysis, design, and adaptive monitoring, evaluation and learning, and brokering cross-sectoral partnerships. The Climate Security Learning Facility, established by adelphi and designed with the World Food Programme (WFP), exemplifies this comprehensive approach. The Facility builds WFP’s capacity to integrate climate adaptation and resilience-building strategies into its operations, ensuring a more sustainable impact on food security and livelihoods in East Africa. 

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