Advancing Latin American and Caribbean Leadership: A solutions-focused exchange on climate change, environment and peacebuilding
When: 22 October 2025 | 10:00 to 16:00 CEST
Format: Workshop
Venue: adelphi HQ, Alt-Moabit 91, 10559 Berlin, Germany
Participation by invitation only
Overview:
Climate change and environmental degradation are intensifying threats to human security across the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. Intensifying climate impacts—such as hurricanes, droughts, and floods—cause widespread infrastructure damage and economic disruption, deepening social tensions and exacerbating vulnerabilities. These challenges act through complex environmental, social, and economic pathways. In Colombia, for example, flood-response has been undermined by the presence of armed groups. In Central America, severe droughts cause widespread food insecurity in the Dry Corridor region, while climate-induced migration places additional pressure on urban resources and contributes to violence in cities. Chronic security challenges, including illegal deforestation, mining, and drug trafficking, further threaten LAC’s biodiversity and undermine vital ecosystems like the Amazon, amplifying both climate and human security risks.
Nevertheless, the Climate, Peace and Security (CPS) agenda remains underfunded in the region and, in some areas, is still met with scepticism. Persistent concerns revolve around the securitisation of climate issues and the risk that top-down approaches may overlook local processes, knowledge, and priorities. This not only risks overshadowing the wealth of experience accumulated over the past decade by Latin American stakeholders—from policy-makers to indigenous leaders and environmental defenders—but also misses a crucial opportunity to connect these regional insights with global debates and solutions.
These dynamics underscore the urgent need for integrated strategies that address the region’s unique challenges, while recognising LAC’s expertise, traditional knowledge and its potential to offer global solutions. Recent initiatives — such as those led by UN Women, UNDP and FAO in Central America, and the Climate Security Group in Haiti — demonstrate the value of context-specific, inclusive approaches to climate, peace and security. The upcoming UNFCCC’s COP in Brazil further underscores the region’s commitment to climate action and the timeliness of advancing this conversation.
Against this backdrop , and building upon the outcomes of the regional conferences BCSC-Cali in October 2024 and BCSC-Rio in June 2025, this workshop will bring together civil society, embassies, government representatives, UN agencies and donors to enhance understanding of the complex links between climate change, environmental degradation and human security in LAC, and encourage greater collaboration to tackle them.
Objectives: This event aims to
- Elevate regional challenges and priorities on climate, environment, peace and security
- Share best practices from the LAC region in tackling climate, environment, peace and human security challenges
- Identify opportunities for regional and cross-regional cooperation on this agenda
- Provide recommendations for integrating LAC perspectives into global CPS discussions
This is a closed door event and places are limited. If you would like to attend, please write to Laís Clemente Pereira ( clemente [dot] pereira
adelphi [dot] de (clemente[dot]pereira[at]adelphi[dot]de) ) for consideration
Return to BCSC's 2025 official side events