Climate Change and Global Security: Planning for Potential Conflict

Sep 25, 2019 | Charlotte Collins
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Climate change is set to impinge on human well-being in many ways, from rising sea levels to devastating heat waves. While we pay a lot of attention to such illustrative examples of a planet experiencing drastic changes, almost every effect of climate change contributes to mounting risks in global security.  The rise of climate refugees, droughts, the loss of coastlines—each a crisis in and of itself—all prompt conflict. As our planet hurtles towards two degrees of warming around the year 2030, global governance and law must prepare for a climate-induced exacerbation of violence, resource depletion, and subsequent threats to global security.