By IRNA
London : A leading global security think-tank Thursday warned that the risks of climate change demand a rethink of approaches to security and the development of cooperative and sustainable ways of achieving security.
The Oxford Research Group (ORG) recommended to the British government that the changes in security policy had an emphasis on preventative rather than reactive strategies.
In a unique report, the independent non-governmental organisation showed that in a startling analysis that how the UK and other western countries will come under increasing internal pressure from their own populations due to climate change.
The likely impacts of climate change will force dramatic changes to the policing and law enforcement environment as they face an uncertain future.
Whilst most analysts see the threat to western countries as coming from the outside, from massive immigration, the report instead highlighted the security concerns governments will need to take into account in relation to their own populations.
The author, Chris Abbott, warned of “protests against polluting companies, civil unrest in response to government policies and, in the extreme, a rise in the use of terrorist tactics by groups with environmental ideologies.”
The report develops the potential links between climate change, its socio-economic impacts and the likely security consequences and warned of a rise in conflict over resources, especially strategically important oil reserves and access to water.
Abbot, Programme Coordinator and Researcher at ORG, said there would be also major problems with migration where there are large, poor populations adjacent to small, rich populations; and an increase in international legal disputes as world maps are redrawn.
“There is genuine concern over whether the international governance system will be able to cope with these new geo-political challenges, particularly if national governments are being undermined at the same time,” he said.
The report suggested that “countries under pressure may turn away from the norms of diplomacy and resort to armed conflict to settle such disputes.”
Governments will have to assess the whole spectrum of policies that are needed at every level in order to cope with the demands of climate change, it said.
The author, who is also Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Governance and International Affairs at Bristol University, assessed that if governments simply respond with traditional attempts to control insecurity they will ultimately fail.
“In today’s globalised world, using military force to secure resources overseas, while attempting to create a fortress state at home, will not work, despite the potential attraction of such policies for governments,” he said.
Abbot said that it was “crucial that the Government begins take steps now towards developing effective policy solutions for the police, security services and military to help them adapt to the new and changing demands that climate change will place on them.” “However, they must resist the temptation to use force to try and control insecurity and maintain the status quo. In this instance, prevention really is the only cure,” he warned.
The report called upon the leadership within the police, security services and military to use their considerable influence to make clear to policy-makers and impress upon them the importance of taking steps now to prevent and manage climate change, rather than relying on force to try and control the insecurity later.
“Failure to do so could lead to an increasingly unstable country, unable to cope with the challenges and demands placed on it by wider global challenges,” Abbot suggested.
ORG, which was established in 1982 as one of the UK’s leading global security think tanks, aims to bring about positive change on issues of national and international security.