Archive for the ‘climatechange’ tag
Climate Change
Climate change, security and future political stability
In the past few years, climate change has emerged as a major development challenge that has potentially severe implications for global peace and security. The target audience for this policy brief is the U.N. General Assembly.
Background
Climate change poses real risks and its effects are already taking place. It is estimated that in 2007, all but one of UN’s emergency appeals for humanitarian aid were climate related. The impacts of climate change include redrawing our coastlines, altering where we can grow food, changing where we can find water, exposing us to more severe droughts or fiercer storms and likely forcing great numbers of people to migrate from their native lands. Climate change will destabilize the economic as well as agricultural base of several countries, particularly the most susceptible developing countries.
In the meantime, warming temperatures are altering the strategic balance in the Arctic Ocean since new shipping routes are being opened up and the gas and oil supplies previously under the ice are being uncovered. Globally, climate change is bound to strain existing mechanisms for resource sharing like migratory fish stocks and trans-boundary rivers. It is evident that climate change carries the potential to aggravate existing tensions, even trigger new ones. For some time now, security academics and analysts have warned that climate change is a threat to water and food security, coastal populations and allocation of resources, threats which could in turn increase forced resettlement, raise tensions and educe conflict (Rodal, 1994).
Essentially, climate change threatens to destabilize governments’ ability to guarantee security and stability. Whereas most of the scientific facts are agreed upon, climate change is still placed low on the priority list of foreign policies, partly because the threat is viewed as abstract and counter measures are too often scantily defined and communicated. Appreciating the security implications of climate change could undoubtedly give new momentum to the climate change agenda.
Analysis
Security organizations saw climate change as an issue lurking somewhere in the horizon, to be monitored and studied. In 2003, the Pentagon commissioned two analysts to consider the repercussions of abrupt climate change for global security (Schwartz & Randall, 2003). The analysts’ paper imagined a future in which global warming resulted in the collapse of the Gulf Stream, pitching Europe into a new ice age and prompting widespread unrest. The global community has since paid more attention to the security effects of climate change.
In 2004, the chief scientist of the British government, Sir David King, proposed that climate change is a far greater threat to the world’s stability than international terrorism (Rees, 2004). Between May 2006 and June 2007, the British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, deliberately placed ‘climate security’ at the center of British foreign policy during her brief tenure at the Foreign Office. A group of eminent, retired American generals and admirals released a report in 2007 arguing that climate change will double up as a ‘threat multiplier’ which makes present concerns, such as food insecurity and water scarcity more complex and obstinate and presents a real threat to the interests of American national security (Zinni, 2007).
The Council of the European Union has demonstrated leadership, calling for developed nations to Reduce Emissions of green house gases in the order of 15 to 30 % by 2020.Additionally, the EU Environment Council and the European Parliament have advocated for further reductions of 60 to 80 % by 2050 (Council of the European Union, 2005). In 2005, ETS (Eu Emissions Trading Scheme) was launched and the European Union has been actively involved in the post-Montreal discourse on long-term action. In the EU’s renewed Sustainable Development strategy, climate change has been identified as a major challenge and area for integration.
Recommendations
The active role of the UN in the Global Climate Change negotiations is fundamental and must continue. The UN has demonstrated leadership in international negotiations and with its comprehensive decisions on energy and domestic climate policies. In a changing global political landscape, key emitters and up-coming economies will also have to be involved and commit to a global climate accord under the United Nation framework.
About the Author
The author is associated with Genuine Custom Writing Websites. The author will assist you with Enviromental Essays.
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