Methodological note for the climate and security index

This is the formal presentation of the climate security index framework. We bring together ideas and methods from conflict analysis, complex systems, signal processing, and public governance to build a novel method.

There exists a large body of evidence showing how climate variability is widely impacting natural and human systems. One of these many impacts is the potential threat to human security. The role of climate variability as a possible cause of violent conflict has come to the forefront of public and scientific debates. In this so-called Climate Security Nexus (CSN), climate variability acts as a multidirectional threat multiplier, aggravating existing vulnerabilities of people of communities suffering from high levels of poverty, political inequality, and dependence on renewable resources (e.g., agricultural production); especially in regions that lack resilience and coping mechanisms to absorb, adapt, and recover from climate-related shocks