(Shared definition developed at the Regional Climate Security Stakeholder Dialogue in December 2020).

Climate Security means that governmental, civil societies institutions and communities are well prepared to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its impacts. This includes ensuring that climate change impacts that exacerbate existing environmental, socio-economic, or political conditions, such as water or food scarcity, poverty, social vulnerability, political or institutional instability, do not compromise community and ecosystem resilience in a way that leads to insecure and unhealthy livelihoods, competition, conflict, or even war.

A country or community is climate secure when functioning and resilient ecosystems, policies, governments, institutions, and social systems are in place that effectively protect all people from climate change impacts that, in combination with other, multi-sectoral factors, threaten their health, safety, socio-economic security, peace and livelihoods. To create functioning and resilient environmental, social, economic, and political environments, the intersection between climate change and other, multi-sectoral processes needs to be well understood to develop effective, integrated, risk aware tools and mechanisms that can address this nexus of risks in a concerted, comprehensive, and pro-active way. The protection of all people means that a special focus must be placed on the identification and protection of vulnerable groups, while flexible planning tools are needed to approach climate security as an evolving process.

Particularly in the Arab Region, the climate security concept is needed to shift the current traditional sectoral policy making processes towards more integrated policy frameworks that engender real, transformational change in tackling sustainability challenges and vulnerabilities.