Climate Security

What this subject explores

• Climate pressures interact with political and social conditions; they do not mechanically produce war.
• Trace a proposed pathway through livelihoods, resources, institutions and responses rather than assuming a direct climate-to-conflict link.
• Conflict can itself weaken adaptation capacity and essential services.
• Assessments need local knowledge, inclusion and attention to who gains or loses from an intervention.
• Peacebuilding and adaptation can reinforce each other when their effects on people and institutions are examined.

Sources & further reading

• Chapter 7: Health, Wellbeing and the Changing Structure of Communities ↗
• Climate, Peace and Security Toolbox ↗
• Environment security ↗
• Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict ↗

Key people

• Halvard BuhaugStudies the security dimensions of climate change.
• Katharine MachLed a 2019 expert assessment of climate as a risk factor for armed conflict.
• Joshua BusbyInvestigates how institutions condition the security effects of climate pressures.

Timeline

• 2007 · A Security Council debate opensThe Council held its first dedicated open debate on energy, security and climate on 17 April.
• 2018 · Climate Security Mechanism establishedDPPA, UNDP and UNEP created a joint mechanism to connect analysis and prevention.
• 2019 · Expert assessment publishedMach and colleagues examined climate-conflict evidence and important uncertainties.
• 2020 · Climate-security toolbox launchedThe UN guidance package connected contextual analysis with options for response.
• 2022 · IPCC assesses human-security pathwaysWorking Group II examined climate impacts alongside vulnerability and social conditions.

Read

• Chapter 7: Health, Wellbeing and the Changing Structure of Communities
• Climate, Peace and Security Toolbox
• Environment security
• Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict

Watch

• Climate Change and National Security | Josh Busby | TEDxSouth CongressHear a researcher connect climate pressures with security institutions.University of Texas at Austin
• Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability — Full videoBuild the climate-impact background needed to assess security claims.IPCC

Listen

• Climate, Crisis and Courage: A UN PodcastHear how practitioners connect climate pressures with peace and security.United Nations / UNSSC

Voices to follow

• Halvard BuhaugStudies the security dimensions of climate change.Climate and conflict researcher
• Katharine MachLed a 2019 expert assessment of climate as a risk factor for armed conflict.Environmental science and policy researcher
• Joshua BusbyInvestigates how institutions condition the security effects of climate pressures.Public-affairs researcher

Debates

• Does describing climate change as a security issue help?Compare the case for: It can draw attention to neglected risks and prevention. With the concern: It can narrow attention to state control rather than people’s needs.
• Should adaptation funding give special weight to conflict-affected places?Compare the case for: Conflict can restrict adaptation capacity. With the concern: Delivery requires careful analysis of access and local power.
• Can cooperation over shared water support peace?Compare the case for: Joint management can create dialogue and practical interdependence. With the concern: An agreement can still exclude less powerful users.

Glossary

• Climate securityThe interaction of climate pressures with peace, safety and security conditions.
• Human securityAn approach concerned with people’s safety and conditions for living, not only state defence.
• Conflict sensitivityUnderstanding a context and how an intervention may affect divisions within it.
• AdaptationAdjustment to actual or expected climate conditions and their effects.
• PeacebuildingWork to reduce conflict risks and strengthen conditions for sustained peace.
• Causal pathwayA proposed sequence linking a cause to an outcome through intermediate mechanisms.
• InstitutionRules and organisations shaping collective decisions and behaviour.
• LivelihoodThe means and capabilities through which people sustain a living.
• MaladaptationAdaptation-related action that increases vulnerability or other adverse consequences.
• Compound riskRisk shaped by interacting pressures or events rather than one isolated cause.

Student research

Published policy papers by One Young India delegates, every delegate leaves published under their own name.

• The Future of Cybersecurity: Is Artificial Intelligence a Friend or Foe?Pradhyumna Prakash
• Reinventing Public Bus Transport in India: Challenges, Gaps, and Policy PathwaysRia Melanie
• Paying the Climate Debt: The Case for a Carbon Wealth TaxParthvi Kandoi
• Global Emissions and Carbon Offsetting: Examining Conservational Approaches and Regulatory GapsVinayak Raj
• The Decline of Regional Languages in India, Preserving Linguistic Diversity in a Globalized EraSajinkya Sharan Gupta
• Ensuring India's Energy Security and Negative Carbon EmissionsBhavya Khushwaha

Threads 4

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Climate Change Science & Discovery

  Climate science describes changing physical pressures. Climate-security analysis examines how those pressures interact with livelihoods, institutions and conflict conditions without assuming a direct route to violence.

  Sources: Chapter 7: Health, Wellbeing and the Changing Structure of Communities ↗ · Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict ↗

• Political Economy Political Science & Governance

  Climate shocks can affect livelihoods and resources, but power and institutions shape who bears losses and whose response is supported. Political economy helps explain these unequal pathways.

  Sources: States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security ↗ · Climate, Peace and Security Toolbox ↗

• Freshwater Systems Environment & Sustainability

  Water stress can create difficult allocation choices. Climate-security analysis adds institutions and cooperation to the hydrological picture instead of treating scarcity as an automatic cause of conflict.

  Sources: Environment security ↗ · Climate, Peace and Security Toolbox ↗

• Climate Migration and Habitability Geography & Spatial Studies

  Mobility can be a response to changing livelihoods and habitability. Climate-security analysis must examine the particular political context rather than label all climate-related movement a threat.

  Sources: Chapter 7: Health, Wellbeing and the Changing Structure of Communities ↗