The Climate-Security Nexus
Publisher: Social Science Research Network
Author(s): Mark Nevitt
Date: 2023
Topics: Climate Change, Disasters, Governance
Countries: China, United States
The climate–security century is here. Our collective understanding of the linkages between climate change, energy security, and national security has grown tremendously in the last decade. In fact, the term “climate change” is wholly absent from the 50th Anniversary edition of this Anthology. Indeed, climate change’s multifaceted impacts can no longer be dismissed as solely an environmental concern. Climate change has enormous security implications both at home and abroad. This new reality was reinforced in the 2022 National Security Strategy, which references “climate change” 20 times and “climate” over 60 times. National-security intelligence experts are now in conversation with climate scientists as they assess security risk around the world. Intelligence professionals are wrestling with massive geopolitical risks if world temperature increase exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030 or 2.0 degrees Celsius by 2050—key thresholds that may lead to irreversible and catastrophic harm. Climate attribution scientific advances now showcase that climate change is increasing both the scope, intensity, and frequency of extreme weather events. Domestically, sea level rise and extreme weather events threaten military infrastructure, impacting operational readiness and the United States’ capacity to project force abroad. Internationally, climate change aggravates environmental stressors, leading to increased competition for natural resources and violent conflict abroad—a new security reality addressed in a series of U.N. Security Council Resolutions.