“Climate change and our energy future are issues that are really front and center in our policy debates and public debates,” said ECSP Director Geoff Dabelko in this collection of interviews from New Security Beat’s Backdraft series. “One specific set of questions within this larger debate is about how climate change connects to a broader security set of questions. In that context we have a lot of questions and a lot of concerns – [and] potentially some opportunities.”

Addressing global climate change will require new and innovative approaches. But what are the potential risks of employing these new strategies to combat rising temperatures?

Dabelko was joined by Alexander Carius of Adelphi Research, Cleo Paskal of Chatham House, and Stacey VanDeveer of the University of New Hampshire, to talk about some of the security implications of climate change adaptation, including the effects of alternative energy types, new strategic minerals, transboundary geoengineering projects, and the UN-REDD Program.

“As the international community moves from Copenhagen to Cancun…it’s critical that we look at these questions, to go into it with our eyes open and to understand what the implications of our different choices are going to be,” said Dabelko.

For more on the risk of conflict from climate adaptation and mitigation, see The New Security Beat’s other entries in the Backdraft series.