Climate Change and International Security  

The risks climate change poses to global stability and international security are becoming increasingly palpable. Today, in Europe and beyond, countries are increasingly aware of the challenges entailed by global warming and environmental degradation. The European Union has been at the forefront of raising climate concerns for over two decades. Among the sectors affected, security and defence is not spared: climate change not only acts as a threat multiplier, but also impacts capabilities and operational considerations. In the field of security and defence, the changing environmental conditions are creating a necessity for international actors, including the EU, to expand their conflict prevention tools, including defence-related instruments, and reassess existing policies in the light of new realities. In that context, the EU is in a process of reconceptualising the link between climate change and defence, and is endeavouring to increase renewable energy use, foster energy efficiency, reduce the carbon footprint of the defence forces, and avoid exacerbating climate-induced conflicts and crises. The European Green Deal, along with the 'concept for an integrated approach for climate change and security', the climate change and defence roadmap and initiatives like the Strategic Compass, are setting ambitious goals for the EU's external and climate action for years to come. The European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs has adopted a report welcoming the climate change and defence roadmap. Among other things, the report underlines the link between climate change and state fragility; emphasises that the armed forces need to be more energy efficient; and calls for the climate-security nexus to be included as a new priority area for the United Nations–European Union strategic partnership on peace operations and crisis management. Members are due to vote on the report during Parliament's plenary session in June.