Articles
The workshop takes place May 3-4, 2012 at British Council and at IDDRI in Paris.
Climate and Security
Professor Neil Adger, from Geography at the University of Exeter will be convening at the international workshop ‘Climate and Security’ hosted by The Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations at Sciences Po (IDDRI, Paris).
Climate change impacts in the incoming decades will increasingly raise security concerns and the workshop will present evidence that the risk of violent conflict is one of a range of risks and opportunities.
The workshop brings together thirty leading scientists and security scholars from nine countries. It is organised by a team of leading researchers from IDDRI - Sciences Po, Universities of Exeter, and Melbourne, and a major non-partisan think-tank, Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC.
Professor Adger makes the link to climate change: ‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recent report on weather extremes shows that these issues are urgent. The future is with us now with the expectation of more extreme weather affecting settlement, migration and investment strategies. We highlight over these two days the evidence base that can assist a real understanding of the interaction of risks and solutions in an increasingly unstable future’.
Dr Francois Gemenne, of IDDRI-Sciences Po comments: ‘Our conference sets a new agenda. New science highlights the rights, needs and values of individuals as important dimensions of security’.
Professor Jon Barnett, from University of Melbourne has focussed on solutions. He comments: ‘there are significant opportunities for governments to enhance security by focussing on alleviating poverty and promoting rights and access to land and food for those most at risk. The evidence on this could not be more clear.’
Dr Geoff Dabelko, from Woodrow Wilson Center comments ‘The issues of new political issues, resource rivalries and weather-related crises are now high in the in-boxes of foreign, defence as well as environment ministries. Rivalries in the Arctic; the need for humanitarian assistance for disasters such as Pakistan floods; and disruption to economies and global supply chains from Bangkok floods have propelled it there.’
The workshop takes place May 3-4, 2012 at British Council and at IDDRI in Paris.
A public conference to take place on the evening of May 3 (information about the conference here).
Date: 3 May 2012