Securitizing the environment

What does a securitization theory lens bring to the study of climate security? By examining prominent existing studies, this chapter argues that contra to other approaches in Environmental Security Studies, a securitization lens allows the researcher to inhabit a neutral position on contested issues including who ought to be secured by a climate security strategy or on the relationship between climate change and conflict. A securitization lens helps researchers understand how climate change becomes seen as a security threat and also that climate security takes different forms with actors prioritizing different threat narratives, referent objects, and providers of security. Beyond this, the chapter shows that research on the securitization of climate change has been valuable for our understanding of the concept of securitization. While securitization is broadly understood as the process whereby issues are turned from matters of ordinary politics into security threats legitimizing extraordinary measures, precisely how this happens, who is involved, and what form securitization ultimately takes remain contested. In short, this chapter argues that environmental/climate security as a practice and securitization theory exist in fruitful symbiosis.