The EU-funded research project "Climate Change, Hydro-conflicts and Human Security" (CLICO) investigates how climate change influences water, human security, and conflicts in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and the Sahel region. Ecologic Institute recently published a working paper written by Elizabeth Tedsen that examines current initiatives of the European Union and United Nations relating to these themes of climate, water, human security, and conflict. The paper provides a broad overview and selection of primary programs and policies for these issues, focusing on linkages between thematic areas. It is available for download.

Policy-making at the international level holds particular relevance for managing issues of a transboundary nature such as climate change, shared waters or interstate conflicts. International policies and programmes have the capacity to reach globally and across political boundaries, as well as to influence developments occurring at the national and sub-national levels. The Working Paper's purpose, as part of the CLICO project, is to identify policies that the research results of CLICO could help to improve.

The paper provides insight into the extent to which impacts of hydro-climatic hazards on human security and conflict are currently being addressed at the international level. Many international level policies and programmes already exist to address these issues within individual sectors. There is an increasing interest, however, in formulating policies that tackle the interlinkages between these themes. Initiatives that address more than one, or even two, of these areas in a comprehensive fashion are still less common, however there is rising integration of the nexus into sectoral policies. The rising number of policies and programmes addressing climate, water, human security and conflict at the international level focus is representative of a growing awareness on these matters in the EU and globally.