Climate as a security issue: challenges and opportunities for UK researchers and relevant stakeholders
The relationship between climate change and security has become a critical debate between researchers and policymakers, as they grapple with the different, overlapping impacts of global interdependencies, socio-political change, human mobility, urbanisation and climate change.
Global humanitarian crises such as in the Lake Chad Basin, Syria, and Iraq have led stakeholders – especially at the global level – to question the ‘root causes’, to develop better policy measures which prevent and ‘sustain peace’. At times, this has led to an over simplification of potential conflict causes, with climate change as a driver being a particularly strong narrative. While the media and policymakers have been quick to adopt climate change as a threat multiplier, researchers have fiercely debated the supporting evidence.
Policymakers and a collective of NGOs have brought the climate-security debate to the forefront of global policy over the last 18 months. A UN Security Council (UNSC) debate, hosted by Sweden in July 2018, discussed the role of climate change in ongoing conflicts in Iraq and the Lake Chad Basin. The UNSC debates and initiatives like the Planetary Security Initiative, have repeatedly called for better linking up of researchers – across disciplines, with policymakers and practitioners – to ensure the best knowledge on climate-related security risks is reaching decision-makers.
Despite a strong cohort of UK researchers – with deep expertise on issues which could help to elucidate and nuance the climate change and security relationship – there is significantly more scope for policy and practise uptake. This is the same scenario for many regions, especially those in the global south that are talked about in these climate-security discussions. An ‘Expert Working Group on Climate-Related Security Risks’ was launched at the July UNSC Debate. It aims to to work directly with researchers across the world to produce timely, non-partisan, assessments.
At this event, speakers will present their views on the climate and security relationship, and how UK research can be better represented in relevant policy and practise work. Attendees will have the opportunity to feedback to the panel and reflect on where they think the research-policy interface needs to move forward. All attendees will then work in small-groups to consider new ways that researchers, policy and practitioners can practically and constructively engage in the future and support uptake of UK research in policy arenas.
At the end of the event, the panel will respond to the newly raised suggestions.
Read the Grantham Institute briefing paper: Climate change, low-carbon transitions and security
If you would like to register your interest for this event, please contact grantham.events@imperial.ac.uk. Please note that places are limited to those who receive a follow-up reply with an invitation.
Join us on Twitter: @Grantham_IC | #Climate&Security
Agenda
Agenda
07:45 Registration opens
08:00 Networking breakfast
08:30 Welcome by Professor Martin Siegert, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London | @mjsiegert
08:32 Presentation by Camilla Born, E3G – Director of Expert Working Group | @camillaborn
08:40 Presentation by Louise van Schaik, Clingendael International Sustainability Centre
08:48 Q&A from the audience to Camilla Born and Louise van Schaik
08.55 3 x 7 minutes presentations in the following order by Dr Ayesha Siddiqi, Royal Holloway University of London; Dr Naho Mirumachi, Kings College London and Professor Jan Selby, Sussex University;
09:16 Q&A from the audience to Dr Siddiqi, Dr Mirumachi and Prof Selby | @jan_selby
09:30 Roundtable discussions
09:50 Responses by tables (3 x 3mins)
10:10 Take home messages from each of the speakers (4 mins each)
10:30 Summing up Dr Amiera Sawas, author of Grantham Institute Briefing Paper 25 ‘Climate change, low-carbon transitions and security’ | @Amierasawas
10:35 Networking
10:50 End
Biographies
Ayesha Siddiqi
Ayesha Siddiqi is a lecturer in human geography at Royal Holloway University of London. Her research asks political questions around the state-citizen relationship in aftermath of natural hazard related disasters and climate change. She is particularly interested in understanding the ways that disasters and political conflict intersect and is currently leading a UK government Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project on this topic in the Philippines. Ayesha has a background in environmental consulting and is also interested in financial and technological innovations in the climate change and disasters space. She has also worked on an American undergraduate program on climate change that travelled across the world studying environmental impacts in different social and political contexts. Ayesha obtained a Ph.D. in war studies and geography from King’s College London.
Jan Selby
Jan Selby is Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex. His research centres on political ecology and environmental security, especially in relation to water, climate change and energy, though has also explored questions relating to conflict, peace-building and development, International Relations theory, and Middle East politics. Recent publications include assessments of the role of climate change in the Syrian civil war (Political Geography 2017; Geoforum 2018); an analysis of the implications of the Trump administration for global action on climate change (Review of International Studies 2018); a call for a new research and policy agenda on the impacts of ‘invisible energy policies’ on energy demand reduction (Energy Policy 2018); and a reflection on the limitations of the ‘impact agenda’ within UK higher education (British Politics, 2018).
Louise van Schaik
Dr. Louise van Schaik is the Project Manager of the Planetary Security Initiative. She is the Head of the Clingendael International Sustainability Centre at the Clingendael Institute. Her fields of expertise are climate change & natural resources policies in relation to security and migration, global health and EU external action. Louise has considerable experience with the acquisition, development and management of (large) research projects for various clients. She has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Leiden University (2003) and a PhD in Political Science from the KU Leuven (2010).