Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The Commission and Council have organised several events and consultations
on climate security both in Brussels and within the context of the UNFCCC. The
EAS has created a series of climate/related thematic networks that incorporate
geographical departments. Diplomats highlight that regular training for o
cials has
been introduced on the security impacts of climate change and that a plethora of
studies has been commissioned. Some academics detect a closely knit
'
epistemic
community
cials that now concur on
the need to push climate security much higher on the policy agenda.
2
The
'
of EAS, Commission and member state o
rst European Union Climate Change Programme covering the years
-
2000
04 contained nothing on security impacts. The second programme, begin-
ning in 2005, did mention political issues relating to adaptation, but the list of
funded projects did not reveal anything security-related.
3
These
agship EU cli-
mate change programmes still
avour or tone.
Recognition crept into EU pronouncements that this situation needed correcting.
In the 2008 revision of the European Security Strategy, climate change was iden-
ti
lacked any kind of geopolitical
ed as a core strategic and not merely environmental challenge. The new docu-
ment expanded at length on the importance of understanding climate change as a
security issue
a whole section being dedicated to this topic, compared with just a
few cursory sentences in the original 2003 version.
4
-
In March 2010 a European
Council summit was for the
rst time devoted to discussing the strategic priorities
for the international dimensions of energy policy, and linked this discussion with
climate issues.
5
Governments commissioned work on climate security scenarios in
2010, and concluded with commitments to carve out a role for the largest regional
security organisations
focused on early prevention and to delve into regional
speci
cities.
6
O
cials highlight that the EU has begun to map member states
'
vulnerabilities to water insecurity, and done this with EAS involvement.
The Lisbon Treaty gave the EU formal competence in energy policy. While the
treaty did not introduce any new provisions speci
cally of relevance to the geo-
politics of climate change, diplomats saw its new energy clause as a useful founda-
tion for articulating a tighter climate
security linkage.
7
The general e
ort to
strengthen EU foreign and security policy has begun to permeate climate policy.
Climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard suggested that the 2011 Tunisian
revolution was related to climate change, to the extent that this lay behind the rise
in food prices that triggered social protests against the Bin Ali regime; a climate
strand was therefore to form a part of the EU
-
s response to the Arab Spring.
8
In July 2011 the EU agreed new council conclusions on
'
'
climate diplomacy
'
.
9
O
cials admitted that by 2011 much momentum had been lost from the climate
security agenda and that the statement was a
. The council
conclusions were triggered by an Anglo-German letter complaining that the EAS
needed to begin engaging in a more tangible and systematic fashion on the foreign
'
new starting point
'
