Climate Security in Japan

Climate change is one of the key global security challenges of the 21st century. Its impacts are a "threat multiplier" that will increase state fragility, fuel social unrest and potentially result in violent conflict. Simultaneously, existing state fragility is hampering efforts to adapt, particularly among vulnerable populations. This threatens to lock many societies into "fragility traps".

G-7 governments have recognized the resulting challenges for sustainable economic development, peace and stability and have emphasized their determination to respond in a robust manner. In April 2015, the G-7 foreign ministers discussed and welcomed the independent report A New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks which had been commissioned by G-7 members. The report identifies seven compound climate-fragility risks that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies in the decades ahead. Based on a thorough assessment of existing policies on climate change adaptation, development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding, the report recommends that the G-7 take concrete action, both as individual members and jointly, to tackle climate-fragility risks and increase resilience to them.

The G-7 report has not been taken up in Japan until now, and climate risks do not play a large role in the political discourse in Japan at the moment. However, an increasing number of Japanese research institutions and civil society organisations see the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on Japan and the surrounding region with growing concern and are interested in better understanding complex climate-fragility risks.

Against this backdrop, adelphi together with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) is organizing a series of events and is publishing a series of short discussion papers. The goal is to raise on climate-fragility risks in the Japanese research and policy community, to identify concrete political entry points to address climate-fragility risks for Japanese policy makers, and to foster exchange and build networks between the Japanese and international expert community on climate security.