CEPSA researcher and LBJ School Associate Professor Joshua Busby along and CEPSA Graduate Research Assistant Nisha Krishnan recently presented at the International Studies Association annual convention earlier this year. The presentation focused on their findings related to widening the scope of attention in matters of climate change and security in Asia. Busby and Krishnan asserted that Asia has not received sufficient attention on climate vulnerability issues as other regions such as Africa. The uneven interest towards Africa is most likely a result of known and expected vulnerabilities in the continent coupled with individual countries’ lack of capacity to address issues of security and climate change.

According to Busby and Krishnan, Asia requires a higher level of attention in these issues because the vulnerabilities to climate change are severe and under-researched. Asia accounts for over half of the world’s population and the existing research indicates that the region has high exposure levels to climate change impacts, especially in coastal areas. This has led to a mismatch of disaster impacts with funding allocations from agencies such as USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. The presenters’ research indicates that in the years between 2000 and 2009, over 80 percent of disaster victims were in Asia, while three-fourths of disaster assistance from USAID went to Africa. Their continuing research focuses on validating where there are climate security vulnerabilities in Asia and where large numbers of people are at risk of death from climate hazard exposure.

The full presentations is available here.