The partial climatisation of migration, security and conflict

Abstract

In the immediate run-up to COP21, several developments contributed to attracting more attention to the climate-security-migration nexus. For months, European countries had faced a major migrant and refugee crisis, plus a surge in the activity of extreme rights groups. Two weeks before the conference, Paris was hit by a coordinated terrorist attack that directly affected the organization of COP21. In this context, French President Francois Hollande’s opening statements at the Leaders Event also stated that climate change would cause conflicts, migrations, and threats to human security. Set against that broad contextual backdrop, this chapter looks at how migration, security and conflict — at that time probably the most acute issues covered by international media — entered into the climate negotiations. It aims to assess both why and how political leaders, civil society members and experts aspired to include migration and conflict in the climate talks. Focusing on the political outcomes, it also evaluates the implications and resistance against the merging of these meta-problems of contemporary international relations.