United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Climate, Peace and Security

About the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the principal global treaty for coordinating international responses to climate change. It provides the foundation for subsequent legal instruments, including the Kyoto Protocol and the landmark Paris Agreement. The UNFCCC has 198 Parties, comprising 197 States and the European Union, making it one of the most widely ratified international treaties.

The UNFCCC relies on the scientific assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to inform its decisions and guide negotiations. The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988.

According to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) and its Synthesis Report: "With further warming, climate change risks will become increasingly complex and more difficult to manage. Multiple climatic and non-climatic risk drivers will interact, resulting in compounding overall risk and risks cascading across sectors and regions. Climate-driven food insecurity and supply instability, for example, are projected to increase with increasing global warming, interacting with non-climatic risk drivers such as competition for land between urban expansion and food production, pandemics and conflict".

As the Executive Secretary has noted, the UNFCCC’s mandate does not extend to decision-making on matters of peace and security. However, its processes can - and increasingly do - acknowledge how climate change and related challenges, such as food insecurity, can contribute to instability and conflict. In recent years, Conferences of the Parties (COPs), shaped by the priorities of their presidencies, have progressively opened space to explore the interlinkages between climate change, peace and security - including through high-level events, side discussions, and contributions from observer organisations:

• COP27 (Sharm El-Sheikh, November 2022): The Egyptian COP27 Presidency launched the Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace (CRSP) initiative on 12 November 2022. CRSP aims to ensure that climate responses support sustainable peace and development while respecting national ownership and context-specific needs.
• COP28 (Dubai, December 2023): For the first time in COP history, the UAE Presidency introduced a thematic Relief, Recovery and Peace Day on 3 December 2023. It also launched the COP28 Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace, which was endorsed by 94 countries and more than 40 international organizations, and which pledged to scale up climate action and investment in conflict-affected and fragile settings.
• COP29 (Baku, November 2024): Building on the precedent set at COP28, the Azerbaijan COP29 Presidency held a dedicated thematic day on “Peace, Relief and Recovery” and launched the Baku Call on Climate Action for Peace, Relief, and Recovery on 15 November 2024. It also established the Baku Climate and Peace Action Hub as a coordination platform to facilitate collaboration between national, regional, and international initiatives, ensuring peace-sensitive climate action and scaling up support and finance for the most climate-vulnerable countries also affected by conflicts and high humanitarian needs. A new Network of Climate-Vulnerable Countries Affected by Conflicts or High Levels of Humanitarian Needs was also launched.

Main office
UNFCCC secretariat
UN Campus
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1
53113 Bonn, Germany

Mailing address
UNFCCC secretariat
P.O. Box 260124
D-53153 Bonn, Germany

Phone: (49-228) 815-1000
E-mail: secretariat@unfccc.int