The Impacts of Climate Change on Maritime Security and Ocean Sustainability

This chapter presents the state of academic knowledge on the impacts of climate change on maritime security. It maps the causes-effects-impacts-consequences processes and mechanisms as considered in the existing literature. The chapter identifies: the effects and impacts in question; the type(s) of maritime insecurities created/reinforced; and the mechanisms that can explain the links/processes as well as the main vulnerabilities, i.e. the factors reinforcing the impacts of climate change on maritime (in)security. The chapter then suggests directions for future research on the links and dependencies between climate change and maritime security as well as areas for policy interventions that can inform the ocean sustainability agenda. Particular attention is paid to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, which, to date, constitutes the main focus area. Eventually, this chapter demonstrates the need to address the climate change-maritime security nexus in relation to the sustainability agenda within the broader ocean-climate nexus.