Deepening Australia’s Regional Relationships through Climate Security

Dec 10, 2015 | Robert Sturrock
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Climate change undermines regional human security, with inaction breeding greater insecurity. Conventional wisdom about Australia’s geography is that we are uniquely located to capitalise on the unfolding economic expansion in East Asia. However, missing from this assessment is an understanding of the climate security challenges confronting our region—which is the most vulnerable in the world to a changing climate. We are situated at the frontline of emerging climate crises that threaten long-term destabilisation in the Indo–Pacific. Asia is a precarious mix of dense urbanisation, low-lying coastal areas, rapacious resource demand and catastrophic natural disasters.