Thread by @nickbuxton

1) Why are politicians, businesses and even civil society groups talking about climate change as a security issue in the run up to #COP26? I wrote this primer after 10 years of collaborative research and identify five key concerns with #climatesecurity
tni.org/en/publication…

2) On one level, talking about climate security makes sense. We all want security, after all. The security of a job, a home, good health, safe streets and yes a safe climate too.

3) The trouble is that security has become one of those weasel words, that means something to everybody. My litmus test is always to ask: Whose security? Who will benefit and who will lose? Security for some is often based on creating insecurity for others.

4) And when it comes to planning for climate change, we can’t escape the fact that #climatesecurity is hardwired to a military structure and approach pushed by the nations and institutions most responsible for the climate crisis we face.

5) In short #climatesecurity is premised on maintaining the status quo. But climate action requires us to overturn the status quo – confronting corporate power and injustice and transforming an economic system that has brought our planet to ecological collapse.

6) Climate security looks to solutions from the institutions that caused the climate crisis. The US military, for example, is single largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases, whose job is to control access to strategic energy reserves & protect corporate trade

7) #Climatesecurity strengthens a booming military and security apparatus & industry that has already gained unprecedented wealth and power post- 9/11. It provides a new open-ended excuse for more military spending and for emergency measures that bypass democratic norms.

8) Most concerning of all, #climatesecurity turns the victims of the climate crisis into ‘threats’. We see this most clearly in the militarisation of border policy already causing immense suffering and death, which with climate change will only grow.

9) It distracts from approaches that are far more useful for dealing with the climate crisis - ones that are more systemic, internationalist, based on values of justice and solidarity. That’s why we should reject climate security, and demand climate justice.

10) This primer builds on work written in a book, The Secure and the Dispossessed, edited by myself and @drbenhayes It is also part of a month of #NoWarNoWarming activities by a coalition of peace and environmental groups gathering at #COP26 tni.org/en/publication…

Thanks for insights and learning from many activists & researchers involved in the original book and in comments on this primer @GeopolSimon @jo_andolanjeevi @DondeNiamh, @CTWnl @_oscar_reyes @TessHumble @criticalcommons @NafeezAhmed @TamaraLorincz @zoebrent @PlatformLondon