I've reprinted below the Press Release for this Friday's Conference on Climate Change and Security. I would encourage everyone to watch online on Friday!
The International Institute for Strategic Studies’
Transatlantic Dialogue on Climate Change and Security presents:
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is pleased to announce the capstone conference of the Transatlantic Dialogue on Climate Change and Security (TDCCS), entitled The Global Security Implications of Climate Change, on Friday, 28 May 2009, from 09:00 to 17:00hrs at the European Commission’s Berlaymont Building in Brussels (Schuman Room, 200 Wetstraat / Rue de la Loi Brussels, Belgium). Attendance is by invitation only, or with prior approval.
Laurence Graff, Acting Head of Unit for International and Inter‐Institutional Relations, DG Climate Action, European Commission, will deliver the Opening Address. Other featured speakers include Sir Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Imperial College London and Jamie Shea, Director of Policy Planning at NATO.
Senior IISS experts, including Nigel Inkster CMG, Director of Transnational Threats and Political Risks, Adam Ward, Director of Studies for the IISS and Jeffrey Mazo, Managing Editor of Survival and IISS Research Fellow for Environmental Security and Science Policy, will moderate the panel discussions. Panel topics include: (1) Adapting Water Security to a Changing Climate; (2) Energy Security; (3) Climate Change and Conflict; and (4) Security Planning for a Changing Climate.
Media covering this event are requested to contact the IISS-US in advance to schedule interviews and arrange provisions for technical requirements. The conference will be streamed live online at: http://scic.ec.europa.eu/str/index.php?sessionno=1023# .
A full agenda, including all confirmed panelists, is listed below.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
House Intelligence Committe Hearing on Global Climate Change
Via the Politico's Morning Energy Blog, I learned that today (Tuesday, May 25), the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management of the US House Representatives' Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence will hold a hearing on Global Climate Change. The hearing will be closed, so I don't have much information on it.
I would speculate that the hearing will look at how the Intelligence Community is arranging its resources to look at climate change. Currently, both the CIA and the National Intelligence Council (NIC), within the DNI, have programs looking at climate change. The NIC's unit, on climate change and state stability is led by General Rich Engel, who has spoken at IISS events in the past. The CIA's unit - which survived a motion to defund it last October - is called "The Center on Climate Change and National Security", and is tasked with providing "support to American policymakers as they negotiate, implement, and verify international agreements on environmental issues." Previously, the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence had also had an Energy and Environmental Security section, led by Carol Dumaine (video of her hear) but that was unfortunately closed up earlier this year. The IISS-US held an event titled "Security, Climate Change and Uncertainty: Rethinking Strategic Risk” with Carol late last year.
Clearly, with the closing of the Department of Energy's climate unit, and the opening of the CIA's climate shop, there is some reorganizing going on. This will also be a good opportunity for the intelligence community to demonstrate to Congress the utility of making the climate security argument. It is difficult to avoid the political debate about cap-and-trade, but they should get beyond that debate. There is a real need to look at national security impacts of climate change, and the adaptation measures that can avoid it.
I would speculate that the hearing will look at how the Intelligence Community is arranging its resources to look at climate change. Currently, both the CIA and the National Intelligence Council (NIC), within the DNI, have programs looking at climate change. The NIC's unit, on climate change and state stability is led by General Rich Engel, who has spoken at IISS events in the past. The CIA's unit - which survived a motion to defund it last October - is called "The Center on Climate Change and National Security", and is tasked with providing "support to American policymakers as they negotiate, implement, and verify international agreements on environmental issues." Previously, the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence had also had an Energy and Environmental Security section, led by Carol Dumaine (video of her hear) but that was unfortunately closed up earlier this year. The IISS-US held an event titled "Security, Climate Change and Uncertainty: Rethinking Strategic Risk” with Carol late last year.
Clearly, with the closing of the Department of Energy's climate unit, and the opening of the CIA's climate shop, there is some reorganizing going on. This will also be a good opportunity for the intelligence community to demonstrate to Congress the utility of making the climate security argument. It is difficult to avoid the political debate about cap-and-trade, but they should get beyond that debate. There is a real need to look at national security impacts of climate change, and the adaptation measures that can avoid it.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Water, Climate, and Conservation in Spain
The Economist has a good, short video on the problems of water usage, agriculture, and water in Spain. It talks about how farmers in Valencia and Andalucia have been tapping water supplies from the wetlands in Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, south of Madrid. Last summer, the peatlands in this park began to self-combust, because it had become so dry.
Though there would seem to be little chance of civil conflict over these water supplies, it is important to note that there certainly is political conflcit between farmers and conservationists looking to preserve national parks. The video also briefly touches on regional ideas to transfer water from the Ebro river in the more lush north of Spain to the drier regions in the south and west. Though it doesn't discuss it, Spain has a history of regional disunity, and I should think that a large part of the reason that infrastructure to transfer water has never been built has been the mistrust that Catalonia and the Basque regionsit have for both the central government and the southern regions. If Spain was not a well-established Democracy in stable Europe, it is not hard to see how a similar situation -- further stressed by climate changes -- could lead to conflicts.
Though there would seem to be little chance of civil conflict over these water supplies, it is important to note that there certainly is political conflcit between farmers and conservationists looking to preserve national parks. The video also briefly touches on regional ideas to transfer water from the Ebro river in the more lush north of Spain to the drier regions in the south and west. Though it doesn't discuss it, Spain has a history of regional disunity, and I should think that a large part of the reason that infrastructure to transfer water has never been built has been the mistrust that Catalonia and the Basque regionsit have for both the central government and the southern regions. If Spain was not a well-established Democracy in stable Europe, it is not hard to see how a similar situation -- further stressed by climate changes -- could lead to conflicts.
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