The EU has been engaged in the Sahel for many years, particularly in the areas of security and migration. However, since the 2021 Sahel Strategy, climate change has become more prominent in the EU’s approach to the region. Yet, the Sahel has long been known as one of the world’s climate hotspots, so while the upsurge in attention echoes the general increase and mainstreaming of climate efforts, this recent rise in regional attention on climate change in the Sahel has raised critical questions around the securitisation, oversimplification and misuse of climate narratives by the EU.
Against this background, Leonie Oechtering investigated these questions in her master’s thesis at the Future Lab Social Metabolism and Impacts, supervised by Dr Kira Kosnick from the European University Viadrina and Dr Julia Blocher from PIK. Specifically, the thesis examines what the main drivers behind the EU’s climate action in the Sahel are, and how climate, developmental, migration and security concerns balance in this process.
Considering the varying definitions of the “Sahel”, the research focuses on the EU’s Sahel definition that is based on the five countries associated with the G5 Sahel, which include Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Theoretically, the thesis is anchored in framing theory, the concept of securitisation, and the climate-security nexus. To address the questions at hand, the research uses a qualitative research approach. It combines six semi-structured interviews with European policy experts, scientists and politicians with an analysis of EU documents, communications, public statements, longer interviews and event recordings, which were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis.
The analysis shows that climate change is a primarily subordinate or secondary concern for the EU’s approach to the Sahel. Climate change is frequently framed as a “threat multiplier” that amplifies already existing security and migration pressures to promote wider security, migration management and border control policies for the region. At the same time, the research uncovered a fragmented presence of the EU and its shifting priorities that are recurrently driven by internal political trends and interests instead of needs and priorities by the people in the Sahel. This fragmented presence is accompanied by a notable gap between the EU’s climate-related discourse and the implementation of concrete climate action on the ground. This suggests a potential “lack of translation” from climate action in language and discourse into tangible measures.
Overall, the thesis argues that the EU’s climate engagement is marked by securitisation dynamics that limit the recognition of climate change’s causal complexity, the inclusion of local perspectives, and the implementation of appropriate climate protection measures.
The full thesis is available as a PDF, here and in PIK's publication database.
Future Lab Social Metabolism
Team and Project Assistant:
Karo Born
