The CASPR Group has published a new peer-reviewed article in the journal Climatic Change. The paper shares key findings on the challenges impacting climate security in the Indo-Pacific – a crucial issue in the conversation around enhancing climate resilience.
Climate security is a growing focus of researchers investigating the impacts of climate change. This is largely due to the realisation that climatic changes will likely compromise human welfare and community stability, with significant implications for governments’ security agendas.
The Indo-Pacific region is an important case study for understanding climate security given its ongoing environmental and developmental challenges and the cultural, political, and economic tensions existing within and between neighbouring countries.
In order to better understand the factors impacting on climate security, the CASPR Group conducted a systematic review of academic and “grey” literatures addressing climate adaptation, disaster management or regional security in the Indo-Pacific.
The paper presents key findings from this review, identifying four key themes that were highlighted by literature from academic scholars, governments, and non-government organisations alike:
- Strategic coordination
- Cooperation for multi-level governance
- Municipal resources, and
- Managing path dependency.
The literature agrees that maintaining and enhancing climate security in the Indo-Pacific will depend on the region’s capacity to strategically coordinate between the activities of governments, industry, and communities; the willingness of governments to meaningfully cooperate with communities and each other despite existing tensions; governments’ ability to manage limited resources efficiently; and their capacity to identify and address climate-maladaptive path dependencies. This agreement across adaptation, disaster management and climate security literature highlights the interdependence of these aspects of climate governance.
The article spotlights popular prescriptions for addressing these concurrent challenges at the current time and argues that these prescriptions warrant further research. The findings of this research will likely have broader applicability for addressing climate security challenges in other regions of the world.
For queries about this research or accessing the article, contact caspr@flinders.edu.au
