Aires Indo-Pacific

Human security issues
Human security issues

Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations in Response to Climate-Related Disasters: What Role and Challenges for the French Armed Forces ?

This note analyses climate change impacts on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations carried out by the French armed forces in response to climate-related disasters. It is divided into three parts: climate change impacts on the evolution of HADR operations in France along with the operational and capability consequences for French armed forces (I), followed by an analysis of the use of HADR operations abroad as a lever for military influence and power by nations active in this field such as the United States, China, France, India and Australia (II). Finally, three foresight scenarios for 2050 are suggested along with recommendations for the Ministry of Armed forces (III).

21 June 2024
Defense issues
Research methodologies and tools
Defense issues
Research methodologies and tools

Climate change and hotspots of conflict around the world

This note on the consequences of climate change on conflict hotspots analyses four regions: Central, West and East Africa ; the Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific ; Latin America. These hotspots were determined on the basis of a climate-conflict indicator created by the Defence and Climate Observatory (see map), which highlighted their particular vulnerability to an exacerbation of conflict due to climate change. Each of the regions is studied through a general analysis of climate-conflict issues on a regional scale; a focus point on a state or sub-region and a foresight scenario on a state or sub-region.  

7 June 2023
Defense issues
Defense issues

Agricultural resources and climate change: defence and security issues

This brief addresses the security issues related to the impact of climate change on agricultural resources. It is divided into three parts: an analysis of the vulnerability of agricultural resources to climate change; an examination of the strategic and defence issues related to securing them; and an identification of geopolitical and security breakpoints.

26 April 2023
Research methodologies and tools
Human security issues
Research methodologies and tools
Human security issues

Environmental security in the eastern Indian Ocean, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. A risk mapping approach

This report arises from a Track 1.5 Australia–France–India strategic dialogue held in New Delhi in January 2018. It builds on a French proposal introduced at that meeting. In this study, Australian and French teams did a joint risk-mapping exercise for the area south of latitude 60°S.

21 June 2019
Defense issues
Human security issues
Defense issues
Human security issues

Implications of Climate Change in the South Pacific by 2030 – SPDMM

The South Pacific region covers the whole zone of the Pacific Ocean that is located south of the Equator, and comprises hundreds of islands. The South Pacific region will continue to be one of the world’s areas that will be most affected by the impacts of climate change. As affirmed by leaders at the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum, in the Boe Declaration, “climate change presents the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and wellbeing of Pacific people” (Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2018). Common climate challenges but also important disparities and strong historical and cultural links between countries of the region have fostered regional cooperation to build resilience to disasters and climate change for decades.

30 May 2019
Research methodologies and tools
Human security issues
Research methodologies and tools
Human security issues

South Pacific

This eighth report of the Observatory presents the elements collected on Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The five sheets propose, as far as possible, elements of assessment of climate vulnerability in prospective horizons, reflections on their possible translation into security terms, a brief analysis of public policies on climate, an evaluation of the role of the armed forces and civil security forces in the management of natural disasters, as well as crisis scenarios (trend and breakdown).

28 February 2019

Summary of the French contribution to the SPDMM report

The South Pacific is often seen as one of the areas most exposed to the impacts of climate change in the world. Small island states, even if they are far from being the only ones affected, bear witness to the effects of climate change more than any other, and particularly to rising sea levels. In this context, small islands will often serve as laboratories, experimental spaces in which the uncertainties that still surround the local impacts of climate change will be miniaturised, reduced to the single issue of sea level rise. However, the impacts of climate change that these areas are and will be confronted with go far beyond the single issue of sea level rise.

31 December 2018