Global Environmental Change and Human Security

Abstract

This article reviews research on global environmental change and human security, providing retrospective and tentative prospective views of this field. It explains the roles that the concept of human security has played in research on environmental change, as well as the knowledge that it has contributed. It then discusses the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project as an example of how this research has encouraged a more politicized understanding of the problem of global environmental change, drawing attention to the roles of power, agency, and knowledge. Finally, the article considers new research frontiers that have emerged from this field, including research on social transformations as a means of promoting, sustaining, and enhancing human security in response to complex global environmental challenges. The potential contributions of human security approaches to the next generation of global change research are discussed.