Abstract

By the early 1980s, climate change had already begun to gain recognition as not just an environmental issue but also as a political issue. The politics associated with climate change is complex and challenged by a number of critical issues, including threats to human security, and forced migration leading to disputes concerning international law, diplomatic relationships, and so on, which delay the process of arriving at a consensus for solutions. Ecological displacement, in particular, is an emerging issue that stalls the course of actions to be taken to tackle climate change. Thus, scholars and academia have redefined aspects of security studies and are looking beyond traditional outlooks of security in order to zero in on potential nonconventional sources of threat that can intensify in future the ongoing challenges brought about by climate change. Securitization of climate change, thus, gives another perspective and opens new possibilities for action. The article looks at the political challenges and developments of climate change and how it takes shape as a global security issue. It explores the need to look at the problems associated with climate change as a security issue with focus on the case of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).