ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how experts suggest that climate change will magnify a broad range of existing security threats. It summarises the views of a large number of reports, documents and articles which argue that climate change turbo-charges a plethora of current security challenges. The chapter demonstrates both that there is a long-standing claim for the geopolitics of climate change to be treated more seriously, but also that guidance remains uncertain over what this means in concrete policy terms. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), offered the first assessment of climate change effects for six years, and reinforced the message that effects were beginning to be profound. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) calculates that water stress already kills more people each year than violent conflict; it points to growing tensions in the management of major river basins especially in Asia and the Middle East.
