The Climate Security Observatory (CSO) is an online platform, provided by CGIAR for stakeholder decision-making that provides access to a range of global climate and security-related analyses. The CSO uses science on land, water and food systems to address the root causes of conflict. The aim is to reduce or avoid the risk of climate-driven insecurity by providing accessible and actionable knowledge at multiple scales. In the long term, this should contribute to the creation and maintenance of climate-resilient peace.

The CSO provides answers to four guiding questions to achieve its goal:

1. How does climate exacerbate root causes of conflict?
2. Where are the most vulnerable areas to climate-related insecurities and risks?
3. Who are the groups vulnerable to climate and security risks that should be targeted?
4. What needs to be done to break the vicious cycle between climate and conflict?

Research shows that extreme climate variability amplifies existing risks and insecurities, impacting already highly vulnerable water, land and food systems. In conflict-prone marginalized communities this can lead to a deepening of the underlying grievances and tensions that affect peace and security. Climate acting as a threat multiplier is a widely recognized concept, but still there is a lack of robust, localized and contextualized and policy-relevant evidence on the climate security-nexus. The CSO aims to contribute filling this gap.The CSO identifies complex relationships, extracts insights and provides recommendations through multiple and multidisciplinary analyses each exploring different facets of the Climate Security Nexus. Each analysis underpinned with rigorous and proven methods helps the CSO answer the How, What, Where and Who components of the Climate-Security Nexus.

Using its innovative methodologies, the CSO answers its four key questions spanning multiple countries. Each country-based report is part of a continuous series reporting on the findings of the CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security Observatory work. The research focuses on 4 questions:

• HOW does climate worsen the root causes of conflict?
• WHERE are the most vulnerable areas to climate induced insecurities and risks?
• WHO are the vulnerable groups to climate and security risks that should be targeted?
• WHAT needs to be done to break the cycle between climate and conflict?

Learn more about the The Climate Security Observatory (CSO)

www.cso.cgiar.org