Climate change will upend the 21st century world order. It will redefine how we live and work, and change the systems of production, trade, economics, and finance. Yet, the world is woefully underprepared for climate change’s cascading impacts. COVID-19 has only underscored the inadequacy of our responses to global crises and heightened the urgency of this call to action. 21st century diplomacy will have to raise climate ambition, shape the transformative systems change needed, and promote and facilitate new modes of multilateral collaboration.

To chart a new course forward, the Wilson Center and adelphi invited a diverse set of foreign policy leaders, analysts, and thematic experts from around the globe to elucidate the connections between climate change and broader foreign policy objectives. What are the challenges ahead? And importantly, where are the opportunities for driving transformative change towards a decarbonized world that is both more prosperous and more equitable? Global stability and prosperity depend on limiting the climate crisis and attenuating its impacts. Our success in meeting this challenge depends on unprecedented global collaboration, the achievements of which must become the North Star of diplomacy. Because Foreign Policy is Climate Policy.

Climate migration is increasingly visible worldwide, from Pacific Islanders moving inland, to migrants in African countries whose livelihoodshave been destroyed by desertification and land degradation.1 And we have seen in the past few years—whether at the United States’ southern border or in the Mediterranean—that migration can quickly become a pressing issue for foreign policymakers, who are often unprepared to handle the aftermath of migration crises. The linkages between migration and climate change are drawing more attention in international policy forums. For many United Nations member states, discussing the adverse impacts of climate change on migration is no longer an option but a necessity.

Indeed, even if we do not know exactly how many people migrate as a result of the slow and sudden onset impacts of climate change, we do know that policymakers in all regions of the world are—or will be—confronted by challenges linked to the increased mobilityof people because of climate impacts on their livelihoods, physical safety, and health.

As some of the world’s top diplomats gathered virtually for the UN General Assembly, adelphi and the Wilson Center launched a new project to help foreign policy actors prepare for a new global context amid a changing climate. 21st Century Diplomacy: Foreign Policy Is Climate Policy is a series of essays, interviews, and op-eds on some of the major climate and foreign policy issues facing the world today:

Climate Superpowers
Climate Change and Financial Stability
Geopolitics of Decarbonization
Geoengineering: Intervention in the Atmosphere
Climate Change, Mobility, and Displacement
Climate Change, Equity, and Democracy
and New Modes of Multilateralism.

The motivation is simple: to date, foreign policy responses to climate change have mainly focused on the security implications of climate change, international treaty negotiations, and the promotion of renewable energy. However, the implications of climate change for foreign policy are much broader, which is why the project team seeks to provide fresh input to drive transformative change. Because foreign policy is climate policy.