Climate Change Briefing Podcast Hosted By Nick Breeze - ClimateGenn
Erin Sikorsky: Climate Security, China and the Coming Geoengineering Debate
Climate change is increasingly being treated not simply as an environmental problem, but as an issue of national security, energy independence, industrial strategy and geopolitics. Fresh from UNGA and Climate Week NYC, climate security analyst Erin Sikorsky joins Nick Breeze to discuss what actually changed during the week. They examine new moves by the UK, EU and Kenya to put climate and ecosystem risks firmly on the security agenda, and why Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the war in Iran and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have strengthened the strategic case for renewable energy and electrification. But electrification creates its own geopolitical dilemma. With China dominant across important parts of the clean-tech and battery supply chain, Sikorsky discusses how Western governments can reduce fossil-fuel dependency without simply creating a new strategic dependency on China. The conversation also explores climate liability and loss and damage, including Nepal's case and the increasingly difficult question of which countries should pay as the traditional distinction between developed and developing economies becomes harder to sustain. Then they turn to solar geoengineering. Sikorsky explains why SRM is beginning to move beyond its specialist scientific community and into climate-security discussions, and why misunderstanding, mistrust and geopolitical escalation may present risks every bit as important as the underlying technology. Finally, looking towards the developing El Niño, Sikorsky argues that governments have a window in which to prepare for a potentially extraordinary summer — and an opportunity to learn what a warmer future may increasingly look like.
