Most experts agree that the consensus achieved at COP21 in Paris, like most global agreements, produced a sub-optimal outcome, and by itself, is unlikely to limit global average temperature rise to two degrees centigrade (much …
Debate: "Climate change and security"
The world is different following adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December. We now have a new orientation for the global economy set by the ambition of governments to put a limit to climate …
What were once considered ‘non-traditional threats’ to continental regions of Eurasia and the Americas are now central security challenges for the Pacific island nations. The South Pacific is a region under siege as climate change …
In The Longest Conflict: Australia’s Climate Security Challenge, I argued Australia’s ‘longest conflict’ this century would be the struggle to address our climate vulnerabilities at home and abroad. Our national security approach to a changing …
The half-way mark in a marathon is always a testy time. So too is the mid-way point of the Paris climate negotiations. The speeches by 150 heads of state on the opening day of the …
The refugee crisis currently confronting Europe is the harbinger of things to come. An unpredictable cocktail of prolonged drought and civil war in Syria has generated over six million internally displaced people, with another four …
The Federal Government’s Energy White Paper released in April of this year appeared desperate to ignore the link between energy and climate change policy that’s been evident and understood in Australia and across the world …
Conflict and instability in the Middle East have dominated the news for quite a few years now, with the Arab Spring and the unfolding human tragedy in Syria ranking as two of the most significant …
The Antarctic region is of immense strategic importance to Australia, not only because Australia claims 42% of Antarctica, but also because the Antarctic Treaty provides that all of the planet below 60 degrees South is …
Will the Paris climate change conference measure up? The answer to that question, of course, depends on what success is measured against. And it’s important that we not only have a clear idea of the …
In the first part of this post, I stressed how the ADF currently lags well behind other Western militaries in recognising the urgency of addressing climate change and security. In a recent Climate Council report …
Editor’s note: As governments and other global stakeholders work to refine their talking points and targets in advance of the COP21 meetings in Paris, The Strategist today launches a series that will consider a wide range …