Climate Security at a Crossroads: The Evolution and Future of Climate Security in the United Nations Security Council and its Member States

This concluding chapter summarizes and reflects upon the findings from the book, Climate Security in the Anthropocene – Exploring the Approaches of United Nations Security Council Member-States. It lays out the empirical data found in the book chapters and presents the book’s three central conclusions: (1) climate change is a contested and political concept; (2) different states perceive different climate security threats; (3) different states employ different responses to climate security threats. The overriding conclusion is that human security perceptions and human security-informed policies have largely characterized state responses to climate security to date. However, this may in fact be changing as new sectors, such as national armed forces begin to occupy more space and exert more influence on the discussions. The chapter then reflects on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, arguing that it is vital to clearly communicate how one understands the term climate security before advocating for one set of policy prescriptions over another. The chapter concludes with a commentary on the potential future pathways that climate security discussions might take as it reaches its current crossroads.