Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Geopolitics of Climate Change
Authors: Barnett Jon 
Published: July 2008

Author's Introduction

Climate change is a security problem in as much as the kinds of environmental changes that may result pose risks to peace and development. However, responsibilities for the causes of climate change, vulnerability to its effects, and capacity to solve the problem, are not equally distributed between countries, classes and cultures. There is no uniformity in the geopolitics of climate change, and this impedes solutions.

Author Recommends

1. Adger, W. N., et al. (eds) (2006). Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

A comprehensive collection of articles on the justice dimensions of adaptation to climate change. Chapters discuss potential points at which climate change becomes ‘dangerous’, the issue of adaptation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the unequal outcomes of adaptation within a society, the effects of violent conflict on adaptation, the costs of adaptation, and examples from Bangladesh, Tanzania, Botswana, and Hungary.

2. Leichenko, R., and O’Brien, K. (2008). Environmental change and globalization: double exposures. New York: Oxford University Press.

This book uses examples from around the world to show the way global economic and political processes interact with environmental changes to create unequal outcomes within and across societies. A very clear demonstration of the way vulnerability to environmental change is as much driven by social processes as environmental ones, and how solutions lie within the realm of decisions about ‘development’ and ‘environment’.

3. Nordås, R., and Gleditsch, N. (2007). Climate conflict: common sense or nonsense? Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 627–638. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2007.06.003

An up‐to‐date, systematic and balanced review of research on the links between climate change and violent conflict. See also the other papers in this special issue of Political Geography.

4. Parry, M., et al. (eds) (2007). Climate change 2007: impacts adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

The definitive review of all the peer‐reviewed research on the way climate change may impact on places and sectors across the world. Includes chapters on ecosystems, health, human settlements, primary industries, water resources, and the major regions of the world. All chapters are available online at http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4‐wg2.htm

5. Salehyan, I. (2008). From climate change to conflict? No consensus yet. Journal of Peace Research 45 (3), pp. 315–326. doi:10.1177/0022343308088812

A balanced review of research on the links between climate change and conflict, with attention to existing evidence.

6. Schwartz, P., and Randall, D. (2003). An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security. San Francisco, CA: Global Business Network.

Gives insight into how the US security policy community is framing the problem of climate change. This needs to be read critically. Available at http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231

7. German Advisory Council on Global Change. (2007). World in transition: climate change as a security risk. Berlin, Germany: WBGU.

A major report from the German Advisory Council on Global Change on the risks climate changes poses to peace and stability. Needs to be read with caution. Summary and background studies are available online at http://www.wbgu.de/wbgu_jg2007_engl.html

8. Yamin, F., and Depedge, J. (2004). The International climate change regime: a guide to rules, institutions and procedures. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

A clear and very detailed explanation of the UNFCCC's objectives, actors, history, and challenges. A must read for anyone seeking to understand the UNFCCC process, written by two scholars with practical experience in negotiations.

Online Materials

1. Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ecsp

The major website for information about environmental security. From here, you can download many reports and studies, including the Environmental Change and Security Project Report.

2. Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project

http://www.gechs.org

This website is a clearing house for work and events on environmental change and human security.

3. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

http://www.ipcc.ch/

From this website, you can download all the chapters of all the IPCC's reports, including its comprehensive and highly influential assessment reports, the most recent of which was published in 2007. The IPCC were awarded of the Nobel Peace Prize ‘for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man‐made (sic) climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change’.

4. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

http://www.tyndall.ac.uk

The website of a major centre for research on climate change, and probably the world's leading centre for social science based analysis of climate change. From this site, you can download many publications about mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, and about various issues in the UNFCCC.

5. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

http://unfccc.int/

The website contains every major document relation to the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, including the text of the agreements, national communications, country submissions, negotiated outcomes, and background documents about most key issues.

Sample Syllabus: The Geopolitics of Climate Change

topics for lecture and discussion

Week I: Introduction

Barnett, J. (2007). The geopolitics of climate change. Geography Compass 1 (6), pp. 1361–1375.

United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, address to the 12th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Nairobi, 15 November 2006. Available online at http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=495&ArticleID=5424&l=en

Week II: The History and Geography of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Topic: The drivers of climate change in space and time

Reading

Baer, P. (2006). Adaptation: who pays whom? In: Adger, N., et al. (eds) Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 131–154.

Boyden, S., and Dovers, S. (1992). Natural‐resource consumption and its environmental impacts in the Western World: impacts of increasing per capita consumption. Ambio 21 (1), pp. 63–69.

Week III: The Environmental Consequences of climate change

Topic: The risks climate change poses to environmental systems

Reading

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability: summary for policymakers. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC Secretariat.

Watch: Al Gore. The Inconvenient Truth.

Weeks IV and V: The Social Consequences of Climate Change

Topic: The risks climate change poses to social systems

Reading

Adger, W. N. (1999). Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam. World Development 27, pp. 249–269.

Comrie, A. (2007). Climate change and human health. Geography Compass 1 (3), pp. 325–339.

Leary, N., et al. (2006). For whom the bell tolls: vulnerability in a changing climate. A Synthesis from the AIACC project, AIACC Working Paper No. 21, International START Secretariat, Florida.

Stern, N. (2007). Economics of climate change: the Stern review. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (Chapters 3–5).

Week VI: Mitigation of Climate Change: The UNFCCC

Topic: The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol

Reading

Najam, A., Huq, S., and Sokona, Y. (2003). Climate negotiations beyond Kyoto: developing countries concerns and interests. Climate Policy 3 (3), pp. 221–231.

UNFCCC Secretariat. (2005). Caring for climate: a guide to the climate change convention and the Kyoto Protocol. Bonn, Germany: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat.

Weeks VII and VIII: Adaptation to Climate Change

Topic: What can be done to allow societies to adapt to avoid climate impacts?

Reading

Adger, N., et al. (2007). Assessment of adaptation practices, options, constraints and capacity. In: Parry, M., et al. (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 717–744.

Burton, I., et al. (2002). From impacts assessment to adaptation priorities: the shaping of adaptation policy. Climate Policy 2 (2–3), pp. 145–159.

Eakin, H., and Lemos, M. C. (2006). Adaptation and the state: Latin America and the challenge of capacity‐building under globalization. Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions 16 (1), pp. 7–18.

Ziervogel, G., Bharwani, S., and Downing, T. (2006). Adapting to climate variability: pumpkins, people and policy. Natural Resources Forum 30, pp. 294–305.

Weeks IX and X: Climate Change and Migration

Topic: Will climate change force migration?

Readings

Gaim, K. (1997). Environmental causes and impact of refugee movements: a critique of the current debate. Disasters 21 (1), pp. 20–38.

McLeman, R., and Smit, B. (2006). Migration as adaptation to climate change. Climatic Change 76 (1), pp. 31–53.

Myers, N. (2002). Environmental refugees: a growing phenomenon of the 21st century. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 357 (1420), pp. 609–613.

Perch‐Nielsen, S., Bättig, M., and Imboden, D. (2008). Exploring the link between climate change and migration. Climatic Change (online first, forthcoming); doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9416-y

Weeks XI and XII: Climate Change and Violent Conflict

Topic: Will Climate change cause violent conflict?

Readings

Barnett, J., and Adger, N. (2007). Climate change, human security and violent conflict. Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 639–655.

Centre for Strategic and International Studies. (2007). The age of consequences: the foreign policy and national security implications of global climate change. Washington, DC: CSIS.

Nordås, R., and Gleditsch, N. (2007). Climate conflict: common sense or nonsense? Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 627–638.

Schwartz, P., and Randall, D. (2003). An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security. San Francisco, CA: Global Business Network. [online]. Retrieved on 8 April 2007 from http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231

Focus Questions

Who is most responsible for climate change?

Who is most vulnerable to climate change?

Does everyone have equal power in the UNFCCC process?

Will climate change force people to migrate? Who?

What is the relationship between adaptation to climate change and violent conflict?