Enhancing policy-making in a climate insecure world
Amongst other things, the group has been an active contributor to government reviews and publications, including guidance on Embedding and Embodying a Systemic Approach to Climate Security for the Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE) and written evidence to the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Inquiry on ‘Climate and Security’ (published in May 2024) and the Defence Committee Eighth Report of Session 2022-23, Defence and Climate Change, HC Paper 179 (published August 2023).
ESRG experts also play a critical part in the development of Defence strategies and concepts around climate security. Members of the ESRG provide regular academic insights across UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), including for the Climate, Energy and Environment (CEE) department and the Futures and Force Design (FFD) team of the MoD’s Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ). These contributions help King’s to translate rigorous research into practical methods for making progress on climate security.
Reforming security education for climate progress
We spoke to the ESRG’s Founder and co-Director, Dr. Duraid Jalili about his role as a Senior Lecturer in Environment and Security Education. He noted that the progressive integration of Environmental Security into modules and programmes of study has meant that thousands of senior military officials now receive evidence-based insights on climate and security every year. This has helped empower students seeking to drive change. In the Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC) of the Defence Academy of the UK, for example, “Over the past five years, the number of senior officers who choose to undertake their dissertations on climate and environmental issues has grown from a handful of people to around 10% of the entire course.”
Through programmes like the MA in Global Security and the forthcoming MSc in Climate Change & Sustainable Solutions, members of the ESRG are also helping to integrate issues of climate security and geopolitics in postgraduate education across King’s. They are also progressively democratising access to educational resources, from podcasts to open-source games on climate security and sustainability. Across all these activities, King’s ESRG is demonstrating that climate change and security are interdependent issues that generate both existential challenges opportunities for radical change.