The American Security Project (ASP) envisages an interactive tool, The Global Security and Defense Index on Climate Change, that will allow users to explore how governments around the world view climate security based on the respective comprehensive study. For now, preliminary results of this research have been presented in a paper by Andrew Holland and Xander Vagg, indicating that about 70 % of states consider climate change a relevant security issue, while some view it purely as an environmental challenge (about 20 %).
Stories of clear skies and wildlife conquering urban areas might provide much needed comfort during these uncertain times as the health crisis unfolds. But in Brazil, where climate and environmental issues already lack attention and resources, the pandemic underscores the next crisis.
Solutions to the current COVID-19 crisis need to be aligned to those of the climate crisis for a global transformation towards more sustainability, resilience, equity, and justice. Climate diplomacy has the tools to achieve these objectives simultaneously.
In the central Sahel, states are mobilising to combat the impact of climate change as way of reducing conflict. But to respond suitably to growing insecurity, it is important to look beyond a simplistic equation linking global warming and resource scarcity to outbreaks of violence.
Between food losses and critical shortages, COVID-19 and climate change are testing a food system that critics say has lost its resilience to crises.