ABSTRACT
This chapter chronicles the use and impact of securitization moves relative to environmental security and in particular climate change. We advance the argument that the securitization of climate change can and does play a vital role in presenting the impacts of climate change as first-order security threats endangering the survival of people and the states in which they live. Environmental security threats have shaped and will continue to shape current policies regarding climate change and related security challenges such as climate refugees, forced migration, and statelessness that will need to be engaged in the coming years. This chapter provides an empirical assessment of these security concerns posed by climate change to the Caribbean region, and in particular to Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In doing so, we also consider the ways in which the securitization process highlights the vulnerabilities and grave security threats posed to SIDS by the acceleration of climate change. With the survival of SIDS at stake, the issue is whether the global community is equipped to adapt to the policy challenges presented by climate change.
