This year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report, which defined the concept of human security and brought it to international attention. It is thus timely to ask: where is human security today? The following is the third part of a series exploring the evolution of the concept and its impact on security thinking and practice.

20 Years of Human Security:
A special focus on environmental security

By Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)
Singapore

Environmental security first entered the mainstream policy agenda in the 1980s via the UN-initiated World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission, 1983–1987), which urged countries to work together on what it called ‘sustainable development’.

The evolution of environmental security

In 1994, the UNDP’s Human Development Report included environmental security as one of the seven components of human security. According to the Report, ‘environmental security aims to protect people from the short- and long-term ravages of nature, man-made threats in nature, and deterioration of the natural environment’.

Within the human security framework, environmental security is seen as essential for ensuring the survival and well-being of societies, groups and individuals. This approach takes into account how humans can have an impact on the environment as well as how the environment affects humans, both within and beyond international borders.

Over the past two decades, as governments and institutions respond to natural disasters and environmental changes, various environmental issues have climbed up policy agendas. Of the different concerns, climate change has arguably had the greatest traction at the global level. So prominent is it that it has come to overshadow other environmental threats, and keeping a more comprehensive notion of environmental security relevant has become a challenge.

Moving ahead

While the prominence of climate change and its impacts has to some extent hindered the development of a broader approach to environmental issues, interest in climate change has also lifted environmental security up the policy agenda. For example, reforestation efforts in Indonesia under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) programme, which is essentially a climate change mitigation project, is also indirectly contributing to ecological conservation and ecosystem services.

The post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could serve as another entry point for more comprehensive notions of environmental security, to bring the conceptualisation of environmental security full circle to the initial focus of the Brundtland Commission on ‘sustainable development’.

Core readings

• UN Development Programme (UNDP), 1994, Human development report 1994: New dimensions of human security, New York, Chapter 2.
• Jon Barnett, 2001, The meaning of environmental security: Ecological politics and policy in the new security era, London: Zed Books.
• Peter Halden, 2011, The past, present and future(s) of environmental security studies, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 46, pp. 406–13.

Also from the ‘20 Years of Human Security’ series

• Evolution of human security, NTS Bulletin, Jan 2014.
• A special focus on food security, NTS Bulletin, Feb 2014.

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CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY AND NATURAL DISASTERS

News & Commentaries

• Megan Rowling, Heat, not floods, pushes Pakistanis to migrate – study, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 4 February 2014.
• Saket S, World’s largest solar park may face environmental hurdle, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 11 February 2014.
• Steve Almasy, John Kerry: Climate change as big a threat as terrorism, poverty, WMDs, CNN, 17 February 2014.
• Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Indra Harsaputra, Kelud causes billions in losses, The Jakarta Post, 17 February 2014.
• Jonatan A. Lassa, Quick response to volcanic activity, The Jakarta Post, 20 February 2014.
• Fears over pace of climate change as Singapore, Malaysia battle drought, South China Morning Post, 26 February 2014.
• Singapore and Malaysia hit by extreme dry spell, The Guardian, 26 February 2014.
• European Union and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) sign a €35.5 (FJ$90.8) million financing agreement on climate change and sustainable energy, European Union and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 27 February 2014.
• Thin Lei Win, Asia’s poor urban children left out of disaster prevention – report, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 3 March 2014.

Selected Publications

• Paul Alagidede, George Adu and Prince Boakye Frimpong, 2014, The effect of climate change on economic growth, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
• Loretta Cheung, Kemen Austin, Andhyta Utami, Jennifer Bangoura, and Fred Stolle, 2014, Building national forest and land-use information systems: Lessons from Cameroon, Indonesia, and Peru. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.

Events & Announcements

• Call for Applications for SEED Awards 2014, Deadline: 8 April 2014.
• E-Course on Introduction to a Green Economy: Concepts and Applications, 14 April – 6 June 2014, Worldwide.

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ENERGY AND HUMAN SECURITY

News & Commentaries

• Nader Habibi, How will OPEC respond to a rise in Iran’s oil output, Harvard’s Belfer Center, 24 January 2014.
• Rangga Prakoso, Three geothermal plants with 62 MW to go on line in Indonesia this year, Jakarta Globe, 4 February 2014.
• Think differently for Asia’s water, food, and energy security – ADB President, ADB, 6 February 2014.
• Ankit Panda, US disputes Indian solar power policy WTO, Diplomat, 12 February 2014.
• Paul Stevens, Why shale gas won’t conquer Britain, The New York Times, 15 February 2014.
• The economics of shale oil: Saudi America, Economist, 15 February 2014.
• Michael Levi, Could tight oil mean the end of big oil price spikes?, CFR, 18 February 2014.
• Ed Crooks, Uneconomic US nuclear plants at risk of being shut down, Financial Times, 19 February 2014.

Selected Publications

• Costanza Caputi, 2014, Quenching India’s energy thirst, European Union Institute for Security Studies, Paris.
• World Energy Council, 2014, 2014 World energy issues monitor, London.

Events & Announcements

• 4th Edition of Mozambique Mining, Oil & Gas and Energy, Conference & Exhibition, 26–28 March 2014, Maputo, Mozambique.
• Babson Energy & Environmental Conference, 27 March 2014, Massachusetts, USA.

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FOOD SECURITY

News & Commentaries

• Jayson Lusk and Henry I. Miller, We need G.M.O. wheat, The New York Times, 2 February 2014.
• Indigenous diets can help fight modern illnesses, say health experts, The Guardian, 3 February 2014.
• David Eimer, Burmese smugglers get rich on Yingluck Shinawatra’s £13 billion Thai rice subsidies, The Telegraph, 4 February 2014.
• Richard Jones, Are we out of ‘firefighting mode’ on global food policies, DevEx, 5 February 2014.
• Going beyond the rice-pledging scheme, Bangkok Post, 5 February 2014.
• Ernesto M. Ordoñez, Smuggling not limited to rice, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6 February 2014.
• Peter Singer, A clear case for Golden Rice, Project Syndicate, 17 February 2014.
• Ros Krasny, Food waste a barrier to cutting poverty: World Bank, Jakarta Globe, 27 February 2014.

Selected Publications

• Global Harvest Initiative, 2013, International trade and agriculture: Supporting value chains to deliver development and food security, Washington, DC: Global Harvest Initiative.
• Mark W. Rosegrant et al, 2014, Food security in a world of natural resource scarcity: The role of agricultural technologies, Washington, DC: International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Events & Announcements

• Global AgInvesting 2014, 28 April – 1 May 2014, New York, USA.
• Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security, 15–17 May 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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HEALTH SECURITY

News & Commentaries

• Sharon Begley, Threat of global disease outbreaks spawns 27-nation pact, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 13 February 2014.
• Maria Elena Hurtado, Rise in malaria forecast for tropical highlands, SciDev.Net, 14 February 2014.
• Médicine avec frontiers: Why health care has failed to globalise, The Economist, 15 February 2014.
• Tom Paulson, Lack of drug safety monitoring in poor countries threatens global health progress, Humanosphere, 21 February 2014.
• Fern Remedi-Brown, Global health security – Obama’s initiative is the tip of the global iceberg, Guardian Liberty Voice, 22 February 2014.
• Stress up among 2011 disaster victims in Japan, asiaone, 23 February 2014.
• John Maurice, European Union adds teeth to its anti-tobacco legislation, The Lancet World Report, 4 March 2014.
• UN warns of ASEAN drug risk, Bangkok Post, 5 March 2014.
• Scientists develop long-acting drug to protect against AIDS, Xinhua, 5 March 2014.

Selected Publications

• Ellen F. M. et al., 2014, A quiet revolution in global public health: The World Health Organization’s prequalification of medicines programme, Journal of Public Health Policy, online publication (2014), pp. 1–25.
• Ole Petter Ottersen et al., 2014, The political origins of health inequity: Prospects for change, The Lancet, No.383, pp. 630–67.

Events & Announcements

• World Health Day: Small Bite, Big Threat, 7 April 2014.
• World Immunization Week, 24–30 April 2014.

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INTERNAL AND CROSS-BORDER CONFLICT

News & Commentaries

• UN-mandated human rights inquiry on DPR Korea documents ‘widespread, systematic abuses’, UN News Centre, 17 February 2014.
• Kate Hodal, Four killed as Thai police clash with protesters in Bangkok, The Guardian, 18 February 2014.
• Australia asylum: Inquiries promised on PNG camp violence, BBC, 19 February 2014.
• Thomas Fuller, Fatal violence strikes antigovernment rallies in Thailand, The New York Times, 23 February 2014.
• Joseph Franco, Peace in Mindanao: The challenge of disarming rebels, RSIS Commentaries, No.41, 27 February 2014.
• Charlie Campbell, Cambodia is a deadly political mess that the world completely ignores, Time, 28 February 2014.
• Jane Perlez, Rise in bigotry fuels massacre inside Myanmar, The New York Times, 1 March 2014.

Selected Publications

• Oscar A. Gomez S., Des Gasper and Yoichi Mine, 2013, Good practices in addressing human security through Human Development Reports, 2013 Human Development Report Office Occasional Paper.
• Alex J. Bellamy, 2014, The other Asian miracle? The decline of mass atrocities in East Asia, Global Change, Peace & Security, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp.1–19.

Events & Announcements

• Mapping the Southern Thailand Conflict, 28 March 2014, Bangkok, Thailand.
• Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute 2014 Annual Peacebuilding Training, Deadline for application 31 March 2014, Davao City, Philippines.

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TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

News & Commentaries

• Rhishja Cota-Larson, Pangolins roll into the wildlife trafficking spotlight, National Geographic, 18 February 2014.
• Agence France-Presse, China arrests more than 1,000 baby trafficking suspects, Channel News Asia, 28 February 2014.
• Pichayada Promchertchoo, Cambodia fears rise in child sexual exploitation with influx of tourists, Channel News Asia, 3 March 2014.
• Njoroge Kaburo, UNEP urges world to swiftly curb illicit trade in wildlife, Shanghai Daily, 3 March 2014.
• Asian integration to spur drug trade, Bangkok Post, 4 March 2014.
• Amira Agarib, International drug gang busted by Dubai Police, Khaleej Times, 5 March 2014.

Selected Publications

• KPMG International, 2014, Global anti-money laundering survey, Geneva, Switzerland.
• US Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, 2014, International narcotics control strategy report, Volume II, Washington, DC.

Events & Announcements

• ACAMS 6th Annual AML & Financial Crime Conference, 7–8 April 2014, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• 3rd Annual Training Conference for Human Trafficking Practitioners, 28–30 May 2014, Florida, USA.

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WATER SECURITY

News & Commentaries

• Asit K. Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada, Delhi’s water supply: Going, going, gone?, Business Standard, 10 February 2014.
• After AGC nod, Johor to review water price for Singapore, The Malay Mail, 17 February 2014.
• Whoever has water, wins, New Straits Times, 18 February 2014.
• Asit K. Biswas, The third world’s drinking problem, Project Syndicate, 19 February 2014.
• Stockpile water, say officials, Bangkok Post, 23 February 2014.
• Asean drought worse than usual, Bangkok Post, 1 March 2014.
• Lim Chia Ying, In search of water, The Star, 3 March 2014.
• Heat, haze and dry taps in the Klang Valley, The Malay Mail, 3 March 2014.

Selected Publications

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 2014, Global freshwater biodiversity atlas.
• Ram C. Bastakoti et al., 2014, Climate risks and adaptation strategies in the Lower Mekong River Basin, Regional Environmental Change, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 207–19.

Events & Announcements

• Global Water Summit 2014: Water for Growth, 7–8 April 2014, Paris, France.
• AIDF Water Security Summit, 23–24 April 2014, Putrajaya, Malaysia.

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About the Centre:

The Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, based in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), was inaugurated by Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan in May 2008. The Centre maintains research in the fields of Climate Change, Food Security, Energy Security, Health Security, as well as Internal and Cross-border Conflict. It produces policy-relevant analyses aimed at furthering awareness and building capacity to address NTS issues and challenges in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The Centre also provides a platform for scholars and policymakers within and outside Asia to discuss and analyse NTS issues in the region.

The Centre is the Coordinator of the ASEAN-Canada Research Partnership (2012–2015) supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. It also serves as the Secretariat of the initiative.

In 2009, the Centre was chosen by the MacArthur Foundation as a lead institution for its three-year Asia Security Initiative (2009–2012), to develop policy research capacity and recommend policies on the critical security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific. It is also a founding member and the Secretariat for the Consortium of Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia).

More information on the Centre can be found at www.rsis.edu.sg/nts.

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