Climate Risk Reduction at the National and Sub-National Scale

Climate Risk Reduction at the National and Sub-National Level from Security & Sustainability Forum. See the attached Climate Security at the National and Sub-National Levels

The second webinar of the five-part Global Climate Security webinar series, hosted on October 26th by the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University, focused on localities or “hot spots” where there exists a convergence of climate vulnerability, state fragility, and strategic significance. It was an enlightening session with examples from Asia, the Middle east, the Arctic and the United States.

Panelists included researchers and analysts from Arizona State University, the National Security Council, Stanford University, the Center for Climate and Security and the Geospatial Research Laboratory of the Army Corps of Engineers.

PANELISTS:

Moderator: Chris Boone. Dean of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University

United States: David V. Adams is Director for Health Security and Climate Resilience Policy at the National Security Council.. He will speak to the threats facing U.S. critical infrastructure and resources from climate-related events, including coastal vulnerabilities, strains on emergency services presented by increasing wildfires, and the implications of drought and water-stress in the West. He will describe how the National Security Council is approaching these issues, and offer concrete options for a path forward.

Middle East and North Africa: Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell are Co-Directors of the Center for Climate and Security, and the first researchers to surface the Syria-climate-drought-instability nexus, a study which has since been widely covered in the mainstream media. They will speak to the effects of climate change on water and food insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa, and offer policy solutions for the region’s governments and the international community.

Central and South Asia

Swathi Veeravalli an is an interdisciplinary research scientist at the Geospatial Research Laboratory, Engineer Research and Development Center, US Army Corps of Engineers. Since 2010, she has been Principal Investigator on several basic and applied research efforts, where she focuses on developing the capability to better understand the impact of climate variability upon humans and the environment.

Arctic: CDR David Slayton, USN (ret), of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, will discuss the changing landscape of the Arctic, and what those changes mean for geopolitical dynamics in the High North. He will illuminate a path forward for preventing future tension and conflict in a changing Arctic