THE DESERT AND arid terrain of the African Sahel and the parched ground of Sudan and northern Kenya are far from the air conditioned halls of international diplomacy.
Irish diplomats and soldiers as well as politician Colm Brophy, in his previous role of Minister for State for Development Aid, returned with stories of causal links between those droughts and the ever present scourge of tribal and Islamic insurgencies in the worst hit regions of the Horn of Africa and the sub Saharan region.
On The Journal’s recent reporting trip to Brussels to discuss defence topics and in the Consultative Forum on International Security it was a constant theme throughout the conversations. “Climate change and environmental degradation pose increasing risks to international peace and security,” the document said.
“Climate and environmentally induced instability and resource scarcity can be actively instrumentalised by armed groups and organised crime networks, corrupt or authoritarian regimes, and by other parties, including through environmental crime. The document is part of a broader wish to identify threats to the EU and also to make the union a “more assertive, credible and decisive security provider”.
At the recent Consultative Forum, across a number of panels, it was mentioned repeatedly that Ireland is not immune in facing these threats.Conor Kirwan, a former Irish Naval Service officer, who is now working with the Capability Directorate at the European Defence Agency, laid out his views on the climate risk to national security and defence.
‘Existential threat’ Dr Rory Finegan, Assistant Professor in the Military History & Strategic Studies, Maynooth University also spoke at the Consultative Forum about the threat to security of the changing environment. “The other side of that coin is that militaries, in some instances, contribute to climate change and I know, in that regard, that a lot of work is being done in the Defence Forces to reduce their carbon footprint,” he said.
“If we take the climate change issue into our peacekeeping operations, a lot of the developments and footprints that Oglaigh na hÉireann will be doing, both now and into the future, will be predicated on issues around climate change.