Climate Security at USAID: (Re)defining an Integrative Issue

Aug 30, 2022 | Daniel Abrahams and Allison Brown
View Original

Climate security is an essential conceptual framework to understand the global interplay of biophysical and socioeconomic forces that threaten our planet. Indeed, it is so important that new currents of science, politics, and advocacy make refining definitions a necessity.

Take USAID’s recently released Climate Strategy. It defines climate security as “The ways in which the impacts of, and responses to, climate change alter the socioeconomic and geopolitical systems that affect peace and security.” The agency’s reframing pushes beyond viewing climate change primarily as a driver of conflict, and instead directly acknowledges the many ways climate change, conflict, and security interact.