Climate Risk and Climate Security: A Comparison of Norm Emergence under the FCCC, the EU and the UNSC, 2001–2019
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2021
Open Access
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Open Access
This item is open access.
This thesis documents and analyses an intensifying dialogue between the changing discourses of global security and climate change governance. It presents a comparative assessment of the extent to which policy statements and debates on climate risk and climate security within three interstate institutions – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the European Union, and the United Nations Security Council – might indicate an emerging dominant discourse on climate security and thus how these institutions have understood, conceptualised and recognised climate security. Drawing from the literature on epistemic communities, riskification, and securitisation, the thesis conceptualises the three analytical themes as a set of tools relevant for analysing the nuances of climate and security discourses. It applies these themes within the domain of interstate climate security, attending to key differences between the themes while acknowledging conceptual overlaps and interchange between them. In doing so, the thesis demonstrates and extends understanding of how these themes can be deployed.
Using discourse-historical analysis, supplemented by scoping interviews with leading climate security experts, it scrutinises transcripts of relevant meetings held within the three institutions between 2001 and 2019. It offers an in-depth analysis of the extent to which an ‘epistemic community on climate security’ has emerged within these institutions, along with associated commitments that signal a process of ‘climate-riskification’ and ‘climate securitisation.’ The data reveals that the epistemic community on climate security has made riskifying and securitising moves, which have created institutional locations that have allowed the development of climate security in the first stage of the norm life cycle. Serious contestation has persisted but, from all indications, climate security discourse seems unstoppable. The thesis draws out the unfolding but distinct conceptualisations of climate security within the three institutions, including the wider significance of this phenomenon. Despite limits on the policy mandates assigned to the institutions, the thesis finds clear indications of an emerging discourse on climate security and thus a distinctive understanding of security. The findings offer a clear evidence-based guiding tool for scholars and policymakers who aim to identify priority elements for climate security action.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: