Abstract
In the twenty-first century, as a consequence of globalisation, international interconnectedness of nations and the market system, the number and seriousness of environmental risks are increasing. In the past, security challenges mainly stemmed from economic, political, social or religious reasons; environmental aspects played no or only a very indirect role in the emergence and escalation of conflicts. Today we face serious climate change-related environmental risks. This chapter uses the case study of Syria to demonstrate how climate change impacts have affected (inter)national security, directly and/or indirectly, resulting in social, economic and environmental conflicts, without appropriate institutional response. The main aim of this chapter is to promote the understanding of interconnections between influencing aspects and the complexity of our whole economic-social-environmental system, as well as to draw lessons from good and bad practices in approaching climate change-related conflict situations, so that the management of such security challenges becomes more professional, socially acceptable and inclusive in the future. As a conclusion, the chapter recommends feasible methods and solutions to prevent and tackle climate-related security challenges. Wide-scale recognition and understanding, followed by multi-stakeholder decision-making and actions are necessary to foster the development of resilient and safe societies, which can evade the environmental crisis.
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Notes
- 1.
The root of the word is the combination of ‘anthropo’ (human) and ‘-cene’ (suffix for epoch). Thus, ‘Anthropocene’ is the current epoch, when the geologic time period is dominantly influenced by human actions (Ellis 2013). It follows that the term, ‘anthropogenic climate change’ refers to the accelerator effects of the greenhouse gases emitted by human activities to the changing climate.
- 2.
Climate Change Mitigation is a process, which puts effort into reducing the amount of emitted greenhouse gases (GHGs) or even preventing any GHGs emissions if possible. It includes the use of diversified energy sources utilising renewable natural resources, implementation of new, efficient technologies and equipment, application of natural and man-made carbon capture and storage techniques, etc. (UN Environment 2019a).
- 3.
Climate Adaptation should be a parallel process with climate change mitigation. During adaptation, local societies need to discover new methods and technologies to efficiently utilise the ecosystem according to the changing climate circumstances (UN Environment 2019b).
- 4.
Climate-resilience is an ability to anticipate, absorb, prepare for and recover from the consequences of hazardous events caused by climate-related risks. In other words, it is the new equilibrium, where society could take steps to better cope with climate change (Field et al. 2012, p. 563; C2ES 2019).
- 5.
Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Fluorinated gases are defined as Greenhouse gases (UNFCCC 2019b).
- 6.
Two-thirds of sunlight, which passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, is absorbed by the surface and radiated back at a longer wavelength, called infrared radiation. Through the Greenhouse Effect, by its GHG layer, this outgoing heat is re-emitted in all directions and warms the Earth’s surface (NASA 2019a).
- 7.
The Syrian civil war began in 2011, in parallel with other anti-governmental movements in other Middle Eastern countries. Since then, these protests have been seen as the beginning of the Arab Spring. The Syrian civil war has escalated from the uprising of the civilians against the government, because of the oppressive regime and the unsatisfactory living standards, to one of the deadliest wars of the twenty-first century. The uprising switched to a civil war, when the violence between the different militant groups increased and the war targeted the territories and the right to control (CNN 2019; Ray 2019).
- 8.
Backcasting, as opposed to forecasting, is: “a method in which the future desired conditions are envisioned and steps are then defined to attain those conditions, rather than taking steps that are merely a continuation of present methods extrapolated into the future” (Holmberg and Robèrt 2000, p. 294).
- 9.
The ENERGISE consortium includes ten research partners (universities, research institutes, enterprises and NGOs) from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. “ENERGISE adopts a Living Labs approach to directly observe existing energy cultures in a real-world setting and to test both household and community-level initiatives to reduce energy consumption. A comprehensive review and classification of household and community energy initiatives from 30 European countries provided the foundation for the development of the ‘ENERGISE Living Labs’ designed to capture influences on individual and collective energy consumption. Data collection before, during and after the roll-out of 16 living labs to eight partner countries are applied to contribute to the design and assessment of future energy consumption initiatives across Europe” (ENERGISE 2019).
- 10.
The LECo project is intended “to respond to the needs of remote communes and settlements for a sustainable energy supply. The goal is to combine new innovative technologies with locally available natural resources and to raise awareness of energy efficiency and possibilities to use the renewable energy. The approach is based on the model of local cycle economy. In the project, Local Energy Communities (LECo) are formed, which are able to create synergetic effects to the local economy and social coherence. The project intends to bring together the combined experience, knowledge and expertise of the project partners and provide conditions for creation of energy self-sufficient Local Energy Communities (LECo). The central European ‘Energy Village’ concept is adapted for the project partner regions (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Ireland)” (LECo 2019).
- 11.
CALTROPe: “Works like a catalyst, provoking positive changes at the most critical shorelines while collecting the sediment transported by the river. The units are installed parallel to the shore, then mangrove saplings are planted into them. After 40 years, the modules degrade and disappear. The mission of the project is to react to Nature's challenges in an eco-friendly and holistic way by creating a scalable system that can solve the problem of many continents” (CALTROPe 2019).
- 12.
Climate-Smart Villages are developed by CGIAR-CCAFS (https://ccafs.cgiar.org/), in collaboration with national programmes, “as platforms where researchers, local partners, farmers’ groups and policymakers collaborate to select and trial a portfolio of technologies and institutional interventions. The focus is on the objectives of climate-smart agriculture: enhancing productivity, incomes, climate resilience and mitigation. The model puts emphasis on the involvement of farmers, village officials, civil society organisations, local government officials, community-based organisations (e.g. water user groups, forest user groups and micro-finance institutions), private sector representatives and researchers from the national agricultural research systems in the design, implementation and monitoring of CSVs. By involving policymakers, district officials and the private sector, lessons learnt can influence higher-level decisions so that successes can be scaled. The focus is on a basket of synergistic options, rather than on single technologies” (Campbell et al. 2016, p. 38).
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Fekete, K.A., Zsóka, Á. (2021). International Security Challenges of Climate Change: Lessons from the Syrian Case for a Multi-stakeholder Approach to Resilient Adaptation. In: Jacobs, G., Suojanen, I., Horton, K., Bayerl, P. (eds) International Security Management. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42523-4_12
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