GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY: CLIMATE CHANGE DEFINING THE NEW AGENDA FOR PEACE

Abstract

Purpose: Despite being a security risk, climate change is fundamentally more of a sustainable development issue. However, conflict management should now be incorporated into actions that adapt to and mitigate climate change. Such a cross-disciplinary approach could benefit both the environment and sustainable peace. This presents climate change as redefining and transforming the development and global security agenda.  This study takes stock of the existing body of knowledge to identify knowledge gaps in the emergent and complex field of climate change, peace and security to inform policy.   Theoretical reference: It is informed by Human Forcings’ Besides Greenhouse Gas theory, which argues that human activities influence climate and not greenhouse gas emissions, which transform Earth’s surface through deforestation and land use.   Methods:  The discursive methodology of policy analysis was used, highlighting how peace and security can be affected by climate change.   Results and conclusion: The double burden of conflict and climate considerations is usually absent in peacebuilding scholarship, while peacebuilding considerations are equally absent in climate security scholarship. Despite environmental peacebuilding’s potential to reconcile these research areas, it has yet to do so effectively.    Implications of the research:  Livelihood security is crucial to how conflict risk is influenced by climate change and how security risks may be increased by climate change.   Originality/Value: The study shows how climate change exacerbates current risks and causes new security challenges like conflict, a preventable import of climate change through responding to its consequences.