ABSTRACT

Climate change, “a large-scale, long-term shift in the planet’s weather patterns or average temperature,” 1 has significant implications for human, national, regional and international security. It does so by acting as a “threat multiplier,” exacerbating existing risks to the security of communities, nations, and regions, and placing strains on the resource-security underpinnings of state legitimacy. 2 The threat comes not from climate change by itself, but rather, from how it interacts with the existing security landscape, and how it interfaces with the ability or inability of governments to effectively manage these conditions, and provide basic resources, and/or prosperity, to their respective publics. This suggests that climate change may present a serious challenge to state sovereignty in a number of places around the world. Given that international security rests on an international system of viable, sovereign states, it follows that climate change may present a significant threat not just to critical infrastructure, but to international security as well. However, the future does not need to look so dire. There are a range of practical and structural solutions for addressing climate change in a way that is commensurate to the likelihood and scale of the threat, and these solutions form the basis of an international “climate and security imperative.”