Climate Security on the Global Arena - The role of Small Island Developing States in the global climate security debate

Abstract: In the last decades, the debate on climate change as a security threat has gained leverage. The topic has been debated in multiple international instances, such as the UN system. One of the most vulnerable groups to climate change are the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) due to their geography but also their developmental challenges. Because of this, they have been strong actors in the climate change debate. This thesis looks at their contribution to the global climate security debate by looking at how they are referring to four different discourses of climate security: national, human, international, and ecological security. This is done with a discourse analysis of statements made by the SIDS at UN Security Council and COP meetings. The aim is to see how the SIDS has contributed to framing climate change as a security threat, as this has implications for policies in the area. The findings of the study show that the discourses of national and human security are dominant in the statements by the SIDS, going against previous research arguing for the dominance of national security. It also finds that the SIDS are framing climate security broader and more widely compared to other actors.