The S&T Landscape for Climate Change and Environmental Security in the Asia-Pacific

Increasingly over the last five years, national and international security organizations have come to recognize global warming as a potential threat to environmental security -- and thus as a challenge to national and regional security. Some island nations, including the Maldives and Kiribati, have concluded that climate change poses an existential threat, as rising sea levels could submerge low-lying islands. Some larger nations, including Australia and the United States have begun to incorporate issues of climate change in their strategic defense planning in anticipation of a higher rate of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions. Their concerns center on forecasts of a growing incidence and severity of climate-related natural disasters such as flooding, tropical cyclones and drought, and the consequent impacts on food, fresh water, and infrastructure. Such events, together with their potential impacts on human disease and migration, could pose significant stresses on vulnerable nations with limited ability and resources to respond to environmental strains. Meeting the challenges of climate change and security in the twenty-first century will require professionals in the security sector to work together with climate scientists, environmental scientists and engineers to develop a high level of understanding of climate change and its impacts over time. Policy makers must be able to pose the right questions to researchers and make good decisions about research funding. The S&T community must learn to communicate their findings to policy makers in a way they can understand and act upon. Networking and knowledge transfer between the S&T and security sectors are still in their early stages of development, especially regarding local knowledge that can support security sector planning for adaptation and response to climate change.