Climate Security as a Framework for Climate Policy and Governance

Abstract

There is growing evidence that the impacts of climate change have the potential to trigger or amplify many risks and vulnerabilities with the possibility of increasing the likelihood of tensionsand conflicts in many fragile countries. This may also undermine the ability ofsomegovernmentsto provide the conditions necessary for human security. Such evidence has recently pushed numerous actors from political, academic and public spheres toward framing climate change as a security issue due to the perceived advantages of establishing such a link. In line with this trend, this introductory chapter aims to address the linkages between climate change and its multiple security implications and the different benefits of mainstreaming climate security in key responses to global warming. After presenting the key economic, human, and geopolitical impacts of climate change and their security implications, this chapter discusses the extent to which these impacts are currently well-managed. Following this, the usefulness of ‘climate security’ as a framework for improvingclimate change policy and governance is examined. The analysis leads to the conclusion that if we underestimate climate-security concerns, new security challenges – in addition to existing challenges –are to be expected and must be appropriately managed. Therefore, a climate security framework can help to adopt preventive and security-sensitive responses to climate risks, thus creating a new dynamic within climate policy and governance.