A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Climate Change and Migration: Ensuring Safe Access for Women and Girls

A new report from UN Women found that climate change poses a significant threat gender equality. In particular, changes in weather patterns and extreme events exacerbate vulnerability among women and girls and leads them to seek safety and opportunities through increased migration.

This growing climate-related displacement has created a need for improved data collection and analysis to develop policies sensitive to the specific needs of women and girls affected by climate change, including “gender-based discrimination in accessing livelihoods, land and other natural resources, financial services, social capital and technology.”

The report also highlights a lack of adequate gender equality considerations in existing international frameworks and mechanisms to manage migration. The increase in migration induced by climate change necessitates specific action to ensure safe and regular migration for women and girls.

READ | A More Just Migration: Empowering Women on the Front Lines of Climate

Water Crises: Coming Soon to a Region Near You?

Bangladesh faces a confluence of water-related threats, such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and saltwater intrusion. But inadequate international assistance means it’s doing so alone. Only a fraction of the estimated 160 billion a year that developing nations need to prepare for climate change has been provided—a gap that underscores the imperative need for international cooperation to help them do so.

Despite this lack of assistance, the people of Bangladesh are not standing still. They are implementing various strategies of their own to adapt, including timely rice harvesting, floating gardens, rainwater harvesting, and early warning systems.

Water security is concern elsewhere: Iraq is experiencing its worst water shortage in a century, part of a series of environmental challenges faced by a nation in which 90 percent of the rivers are polluted. In Ramadi, for instance, Habbaniyah Lake is rapidly shrinking and leaving residents without access to water. Compounding this insecurity, many residents lack the means to escape or are forced to move by ISIS. 

READ | How Water Strategizing is Remaking the Middle East

A Climate Security Plan for ASEAN’s Defense Ministers

The Indo-Pacific region is a key focal point for understanding climate change’s role as a threat multiplier. Not only is it the world’s most populous region, but it is also the most vulnerable region to the natural hazards and sea-level rise exacerbated by global warming.

Could ASEAN lead the way on multilateral military cooperation over climate security? A policy report from Nanying Technical University outlines a comprehensive climate security framework that facilitates military contributions to finding solutions and creating opportunities for engagement and collaboration across the Indo-Pacific.

WATCH | ECSP event on Climate Security Risks in the Pacific