Although there is now a strong consensus on the reality of the problem of climate change, the debate about what needs to be done to solve it has hardly begun.  CIC's Scarcity and Security project is designed to help the development of practical, workable responses to climate change - and in particular, to ensure that strategies for managing climate change are integrated effectively with solutions to other global public goods issues such as energy security, sound resource management and food security.

CIC's cross-issue expertise in global governance and international treaty-making enables it to bring a distinctive perspective to bear on these areas.  The project's current research focuses on three major themes: what a comprehensive international agreement on climate change would look like, how the institutional infrastructure can better support such an agreement, and how international climate policy can be underpinned by more effective 'theory of influence' in public diplomacy.

Lead researcher: Alex Evans

Delivering on Global Prosperity and Other Key Challenges
April 2009

Richard Gowan reports on a recent conference at Wilton Park (UK) organized by the British Foreign Office on the reform of international institutions, timed to coincide with preparations for the London Summit.

Read about the Wilton Park Conference

Read about the London Summit

The Feeding of the Nine Billion
January 2009

After a year long research partnership with CIC and London’s Chatham House, CIC non-resident fellow Alex Evans has produced a report entitled "The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global Food Security for the 21st Century.”

Read "The Feeding of the Nine Billion"
Read Financial Times article

Alex Evans gives speech at the invitation of the World Food Programme's Executive Director
October 2008

Read Alex Evans' speech as it was presented to the WFP at its Global Meeting.

CIC research highlighted in UK Parliament report on rising food prices
July 2008

Alex Evans provided extensive evidence for this report on global food security from the International Development Committee. For more of Mr. Evans's work on food scarcity, see this briefing paper on the drivers of rising food prices. Information from the paper has been featured in stories on CNN and BBC, as well as in the Chicago Tribune, El Pais, The Independent, and a widely circulated Associated Press article.

Towards A Theory of Influence for Twenty-First Century Foreign Policy
July 2008

There are hard questions for governments to consider about their role in a globalised world. Alex Evans and David Steven address these challenges in a chapter of a new book entitled Engagement: Public Diplomacy in a Globalised World.