Environmental Security, Sustainability and Policy

Environmental security and sustainability are complementary approaches to comprehending and resolving environmental problems. In contrast to sustainability, however, environmental security has performed poorly in terms of policy formulation. This is a function of its short history, its interdisciplinary nature, and its ambiguity. It is also a function of disagreements about which environmental problems can rightfully be called 'security' issues. As a way forward, this paper proposes a framework for identifying environmental problems that might reasonably be considered as security issues. Applying this framework, biodiversity loss, climate change, and nuclear power all qualify as environmental security issues. The framework is explained through an application to the issue of nuclear power. Sustainability policy provides many answers to these macro-problems, so the paper then explores the linkages between environmental security and sustainability. It argues that environmental security does not necessarily demand new policies, but rather in the first instance requires a renewed effort at implementing existing sustainability policies. To this end, environmental security requires new forms of governance.

Environmental security has become one of the main pillars of international security, and environment and climate issues have become at the forefront of issues that are addressed and focused on in various international discussions, due to the importance of these issues and their vitality for man. During the past three decades, environmental problems have become defining many global trends in In light of the environmental problems that have exacerbated as a result of the self-interests of states and the desire to expand the economy as well as contemporary consumer behavior, environmental security has strengthened ways to confront environmental challenges and problems exacerbated by these problems, as countries have come to see that environmental threats and climate change can lead to catastrophic results. On the security of states, therefore, it has become keen to address environmental problems collectively and activate collective diplomatic action, because states are no longer able to unilaterally confront environmental changes, and this is due to the increase in environmental problems and their significant development. Environmental security has become obligatory for states to modify their behaviour in a manner consistent with the necessary and required treatments in order to confront environmental risks. At the same time, many countries and countries have sought international organizations to focus on issues that are at the core of important positions such as environmental securitization and environmental terrorism resulting from abnormal behaviours of environmental defenders who have created wrong practices in defending the environment, which constitutes an opposite proposition in environmental security.

Global climate change-essentially an adverse consequence of global warming, is principally caused by progressive build-up and extensive spread of greenhouse gases (GHGs) across countries, regions or continents because of earth’s rotational movement. The potent sources of GHGs are fossil-fuels and biomass. With the increasing pace of globalization, industrialization and rapid change of life-style, the demand and consumption of these feed-stocks to stimulate economic growth is steadily rising- both in the developing and developed economy. In the process, the emissions level is also rising phenomenally; and of late become quite alarming - more in the former than latter case, affecting thereby the environmental quality as also its security concerns globally. This paper highlights the major impacts of global warming and consequential climate change on the environmental quality and overall security aspects- including commercial, strategic and defense angles for the South-Asian region. The paper also discusses some relevant aspects linking the larger question of energy security with environmental security through the approach of sustainable energy development for envisioning a balanced economic development as well as growth perspective for South Asia. The significance of International cooperation in the mitigation and adaptation of climate change impacts with special reference to Asia- Pacific and South Asian region is also discussed at some length in the paper. Key words: Global climate, environmental security, South Asia, sustainable energy development, mitigation and adaptation, international cooperation.

Threat to environmental security such as climate change is a security problem that requires local and global solutions. However, the impacts of climate change vary across temporal and spatial scales. For impacts that are local and global, short- and long-term considerations in policy making are imperative. Similarly, although the impact is global, climate change also requires adaptation responses at regional, country and local levels. Government policy nowadays is increasingly challenged by the notions of environmental security, sustainability and governance. Malaysian policy here points toward a national interest and a decision of government on the issue of environmental security. This paper discusses how local and global environmental threats (Especially on climate change) influence policy making in Malaysia.

Over the past 20 years scholars, policymakers, and the media have increasingly recognized the links between both traditional and non-traditional security issues and the changing condition of the global environment. Concepts such as 'environmental security' and 'resource conflict' have been used to hint at these significant linkages. While there has been a good deal of scholarly work conducted that seeks to identify the ways that actors link these concepts, there has been little examination of the intersection between approaches to environmental security and gender. This book explores this intersection to provide an insight into the gendered nature of both global environmental politics and security studies. It examines how the issues of security and the environment are linked to theory and practice, and the extent to which gender informs these discussions. By adopting a feminist environmental security discourse, this book provides crucial redefinitions of key concepts and offers new insights into the ways we understand security-environment connections. Case studies evaluate if, and how, environment and security discourses are being used to understand a range of environmental issues, and how a feminist environmental security discourse contributes to our understanding of security-environment connections. This multidisciplinary volume draws on literature from the environmental sciences, security studies and sociology to highlight the complex human insecurities that often accompany environmental change. As conceptualizations of security continue to shift and broaden to include environmental issues and concerns, it is imperative that gender informs the debate.

Review: <i>Environmental Politics of the Middle East</i>, edited by Harry Verhoeven

In this study, we tried within the framework of the Copenhagen School theory to study the problem of societal and environmental security of the Kurdistan region and identify security threats and risks in these areas. Because the Copenhagen School, by studying and presenting five aspects and sectors of security (political, military, societal, economic and environmental), tries to identify non-military issues within the framework of security problems. This study, apart from the introduction and conclusions, contains the view of the Copenhagen School of societal and Environmental Security, and then discusses security issues in the Kurdistan region within the security sectors mentioned. At the end of the study, we reached several important conclusions, including: drugs, identity crisis, new generation gap and new social divergence, in addition to the arrival of waves of immigrants and refugees had a direct impact on the societal security of The Kurdistan. In the field of environmental security, environmental problems such as air and environmental pollution, the water problem, particularly water policies adopted by Turkey and Iran with the spread of epidemics and diseases such as the Corona pandemic, affect the sector and other security dimensions of the Kurdistan region in general and its environmental and societal security in particular. At the same time, the economic, political and military crises of Kurdistan have had a negative impact on societal and environmental issues.

Ours is an age of unprecedented levels of environmental alteration and biodiversity loss. Beyond the exposure to environmental hazards, conditions such as environmental degradation, biotic impoverishment, climate change, and the loss of ecosystem services create important health threats by changing the ecology of many pathogens and increasing the incidence and/or severity of certain noncommunicable conditions. They also threaten health in the future by weakening the Earth's life support systems.Although physicians remain one of the most often accessed and most trusted sources of information about the environment, there is currently little emphasis on educating medical professionals about these environmental issues. This lack of training reduces the ability of most physicians to be efficient science-public interfaces and makes them ineffective at contributing to address the fundamental causes of environmental problems or participate in substantive environmental policy discussions. This is an important challenge facing medical education today.To turn medical students into effective physician-citizens, an already-overwhelmed medical school curriculum must make way for a thoughtful exploration of environmental stressors and their impacts on human health. The overarching question before medical educators is how to develop the competencies, standards, and curricula for this educational endeavor. To this end, the authors highlight some of the critical linkages between health and the environment and suggest a subset of key practical issues that need to be addressed in order to create environmental education standards for the physician of the future.

Large-scale industrial development of the Arctic territories is a steady course of development that the world economy has been following for several decades. This development is facilitated by global warming, which creates prerequisites for the freeing more and more territories from ice, depletion of resources, especially hydrocarbons, as well as the emergence of new technologies that allow extraction of minerals in difficult conditions for economic activity in the Arctic. Given the vulnerability of the Arctic natural systems, the issues of environmental and economic security, as a result of such development, come to the fore. The study, analyzes the financial capabilities of the Arctic regions and concludes that they have significant financial potential, which, if used rationally, should contribute to ensuring economic and environmental security. The paper proposes the authors’ interpretation of the concept of financial potential of the region. The review of domestic and foreign scientific literature showed that many works are devoted to topical issues of ensuring environmental and economic security of the Arctic regions, but the impact of financial potential on these categories is currently undefined. The paper also analyzes the financial potential of economic entities operating in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. It has been revealed that of the nine regions of the Russian Federation classified as Arctic, only one - the Krasnoyarsk Territory - has the value of the indicator characterizing the share of break-even enterprises, which exceeds the average Russian values. At the same time, when assessing the coefficient of provision with tax payments, in seven out of nine regions the value of this coefficient exceeds the average Russian values.

The resources of the Antarctic continental shelf region comprise oil, gas and diverse marine life. Important issues of both resource and environmental security are raised by the prospect of the exploitation of resources within the region yet to date, with the exception of fishing and limited marine bioprospecting, minimal attention has been paid to the commercial value of the continental shelves off Antarctica. In terms of resource and environmental security, the role of the Antarctic region may be influenced more by politics and regime dynamics than by economics. The acceptability of activities may change depending on the security of states' rights within the governing regime as well as depletion of resources elsewhere. The ability of the regime to accommodate resource and environmental security challenges provides evidence of the strength of that governing regime. A recent significant challenge to the Antarctic regime has been the issue of defining the outer limits of the continental shelves within the Antarctic Treaty area. This challenge stems from perceptions that defining the limits and exercising associated rights could contradict the Antarctic Treaty and the accepted norms with respect to the recognition (or otherwise) of sovereign claims over the continent. It could also be perceived as a precursor to mineral resource activities presently prohibited under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Prototcol). This chapter considers how the continental shelf delimitation process has enhanced resource, environmental and regime security within the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). For the purposes of this chapter, the process of delimiting continental shelves south of 60°S will be discussed. This includes the Antarctic continental shelf and those areas extending south from sub-Antarctic islands located north of 60°S, such as the South Sandwich Islands and the Heard and McDonald Islands (HIMI). Although this process of elimination can potenially be seen as a threat to the governing regime, this chapter argues that the process has in fact enhanced regime security and provided further clarity concerning the development and protection of continental shelf resources. The cooperation exercised in this process between interested states indicates a willingness to promote longer term regime stability and security within the Antarctic region.

The article reveals the evolution of environmental and food security in Ukraine’s national security strategies during the years of independence. It is determined that at the state level a number of issues related to the creation of the most effective system of environmental and food security of the state within the existing at different stages of statehood National Security Strategies of Ukraine, both at the legislative level and in the functioning of relevant competent government agencies.&#x0D; The content of ensuring the ecological and food security of the state in four national security strategies of Ukraine is revealed. It is determined that the issue of environmental and food security of the state needs a clear definition of the state in strategic priorities and goals that should meet current trends in the national economy and world realities in this area.&#x0D; Threats to national security in the field of environmental and food security have been studied.&#x0D; It was emphasized that in accordance with the Final Provisions of the National Security Strategy of Ukraine 2020 on the development of planning documents in the field of national security and defense, which will determine ways and tools for its implementation, clearly regulates the adoption and approval of the President food security.&#x0D; The Strategy of Environmental Safety and Adaptation to Climate Change until 2030, adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on October 20, 2021 in order to increase the level of environmental safety, reduce the impacts and consequences of climate change in Ukraine, is analyzed. The implementation of the Strategy is aimed at fulfilling Ukraine’s international obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of global climate change. The main environmental threats to Ukraine in this Strategy are: a significant level of air pollution, water and land resources, imperfect system of state supervision (control) and monitoring of the environment.&#x0D; The draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On approval of the Food Security Strategy for the period up to 2030”, which will be aimed at defining priorities in the field of food security as a component of national security, the importance of preventing hunger and malnutrition of the most vulnerable. It will include: the establishment of a system of national and regional food security monitoring to detect and prevent food threats; development and implementation of an action plan to provide the population with food in emergency situations; measures for the development of sustainable agricultural production; diversification of production; creation of sustainable production and marketing systems.&#x0D; It is emphasized that the most striking indicator of effective implementation of national Strategies in the field of environmental security and food security should be maintaining the proper natural state of our country’s ecology and the formation of a sufficient level of self-sufficiency in food of Ukraine. The directions of increase of efficiency of maintenance of ecological and food safety of Ukraine are defined.

SummaryEnvironmental security is the integration of environmental and national security considerations at a national policy level. It is a relatively new and still somewhat contentious concept, although in some countries, such as the United States, it is increasingly being embedded in traditional security and foreign policy institutions. It is of interest to the industrial ecologist for several reasons. First, from the methodological perspective, environmental security issues are frequently complex, multidisciplinary, and multiscalar in both temporal and geographic dimensions. They are thus good opportunities to apply existing industrial ecology tools such as industrial metabolism stock and flow studies, as well as to support the development of new industrial ecology methods. Second, environmental security offers an important case study of an important fundamental industrial ecology dynamic: the movement of environment from overhead to strategic for society. This process occurs at many different scales, from implementation of design for environment methodologies within firms to integration of environmental and trade considerations in the World Trade Organization; and it is important for the industrial ecologist to begin to understand its underlying dynamics. Finally, national security is the quintessential raison d'etre of the national state. Accordingly, the integration of environmental considerations into national security policies and institutions, using industrial ecology methodologies and patterns of analysis, is a significant validation of the field.

Facing Global Environmental Change

Global climate change-essentially an adverse consequence of global warming, is principally caused by progressive build-up and extensive spread of greenhouse gases (GHGs) across countries, regions or continents because of earth’s rotational movement. The potent sources of GHGs are fossil-fuels and biomass. With the increasing pace of globalization, industrialization and rapid change of life-style the demand and consumption of these feed-stocks to stimulate economic growth is steadily rising-both in the developing and developed economy. In the process, the emissions level is also rising phenomenally; and of late become quite alarming-more in the former than latter case, affecting thereby the environmental quality as also its security concerns globally. This paper highlights the major impacts of global warming and consequential climate change on the environmental quality and overall security aspects-including commercial, strategic and defense angles for the South-Asian region. The paper also discusses some relevant aspects linking the larger question of energy security with environmental security through the approach of sustainable energy development for envisioning a balanced economic development as well as growth perspective for South Asia. The significance of International cooperation in the mitigation and adaptation of climate change impacts with special reference to Asia- Pacific and South Asian region is also discussed at some length in the paper.

In this paper, we are interested in assessing the different environmental security concepts, policies, and actions of actors involved in the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Through exploratory qualitative research, we interviewed key stakeholders who formulate both the climate security discourse and its policy outcomes. Aiming at finding the different perceptions and practices among various actors, we conducted 27 qualitative interviews with practitioners from 17 different institutions, such as EU bodies and agencies, think tanks, and ministries of defense (MoDs). This article discusses the divergence between announced environmental and climate security strategies and policies related to their actual results. Notably, the findings indicate that the effectiveness of the political directives compared with the practices and the developed capabilities around the environment–security nexus are dependent on individual initiatives and efforts that a developing community of practitioners is attempting to carry out. Our study indicates that tailored environmental security policies and actions are needed to motivate both practitioners and policymakers to develop downstream methods and programs that are suited to resolving security-related challenges associated with environmental issues and especially climate change.