As the world grapples with multiple crises, we cannot afford to overlook the most pressing and global crisis of our time – the climate crisis. Unprecedented levels of natural and humanitarian disasters, instability and conflict, and growing geopolitical and economic tensions over clean technology demonstrate how climate change permeates domestic, foreign policy and national security agendas.
Climate security refers to how climate change impacts political, human and national security. Around the world, governments are increasingly recognizing climate change as a direct and immediate risk. Governments are therefore being forced to stretch their understanding of, approach, and response to climate risks like never before.
This has implications for development agencies, diplomacy, conflict prevention tools, economic policy frameworks, and national security priorities. Elevating and integrating climate risks and responses across systems has become critical. Climate security also entails both mitigating current challenges while supporting and strengthening resilience around climate risks.
Countries around the world have begun incorporating climate security in their various national security strategies or approaches. These include Australia, the European Union, Germany, Japan, the United States, and several small island states.
Norway, Sweden, and other actors such as NATO, are integrating climate considerations into their national security strategies through crisis response and resilience. Some are going a step further by creating specific climate security frameworks and assessments.
For example:
- Australia’s domestic and international climate security initiatives;
- The recently released U.S. Framework for Climate Resilience and Security;
- Japan’s 2022 National Security Strategy, which embedded climate security;
- Germany’s 2023 National Security Strategy, in which climate security is one of the three central pillars, and the German Federal Ministry of Defense’s Defense and Climate Change strategy;
- The UK’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, made climate and energy security central to his messaging at COP29.
Looking at current geopolitical landscapes, still others are integrating climate security more fully into narratives about why and how climate action is critical for domestic and global responses. Besides the UK, other countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Germany, Nicaragua, Mali, South Sudan, Thailand, Ukraine, and Zambia all voiced support for climate security initiatives at COP29, showing a real interest in the subject across regions and levels of development.
A notable case study, Australia, has incorporated climate security into domestic and foreign policy making, including a National Climate Risk Assessment First pass assessment report and the Kiribati Australia Climate Security Initiative. The risk assessment report identifies over 50 significant climate risks and 11 priority areas for greater attention across health, infrastructure, and water security and provides cohesive governance and planning across local, regional, federal, and international levels.
The Kiribati Initiative is just one of multiple regional bilateral and multilateral programs with governments across the Pacific and exemplifies how Australia has been building not only its climate diplomacy, but its diplomatic position writ large. These initiatives offer great examples of how developed countries can better their messaging and build true partnerships across the developing world.
Other countries should also devise their own strategies and frameworks to simultaneously address mitigation, environmental resilience and geopolitical stability. In a rapidly evolving global landscape, climate security is more than a theoretical framework – it is a practical, necessary integration of climate action into national security and foreign policy.
This includes increasing data analytics and early warning systems, fostering inter-agency and international cooperation to integrate climate risks into strategies, and devising climate security responses as well as boosting preparedness and resilience.
Leading countries should work to ensure space for international partnerships. While every country has different national circumstances and priorities, there is much that countries can learn from one another as they seek to build their own climate resilience and security.
As countries increasingly recognize the intertwined nature of climate and security, their united actions can transform global climate diplomacy, leading to a more secure, sustainable world.
