Environment security from the landscape of 2023 (opportunities and challenges

Literature review)

Abstract

There are core problems that the global world is facing and environment security is one of
them. With the advent of colonialism, corporate capitalism and competition among elite and
developed countries, the use of renewable energy sources, deforestation and erosion of ocean
life have become common practices. This has no doubt caused a serious negative impact on
the environmental security of countries and provides opportunities and challenges to find
innovative and eco-friendly methods for bringing environmental security. The following
literature review provides key insights into challenges and opportunities from the perspective
of 2023.

Introduction

Global Landscape 2023 provides key insights into opportunities and challenges in the
environment protection sector. There has been vast research conducted in this sector,
according to the UN CO2 emissions have increased to 50% till now which is posing an
environmental threat and subsequently making life difficult. The year 2023, proved to be a
year of extreme weather which experienced drought, floods, typhoons, and irregular
monsoons. According to Palardy (2023),2023 landscape facts have been revealed by the
World Health Organisation which reveals that environmental damage causes £4 billion cost
with estimated deaths of 250,000 each year. Challenges that the rough environment has
provided are; malnutrition, heat stress, and extreme temperatures. The study conducted by
Palardy (2023) reveals that climate change will cause many challenges out of which human
displacement is major. The areas that will be highly affected are Maldives, Dubai, Manila,
Bangkok, Bangladesh and Venice. Many examples can be referred to reduce climate
vulnerability and sustain the environment. The 2023 insights provide extremely vulnerable
facts about climate change.

The following section gives insights into challenges from a landscape of 2023 that climate
change has posed to the world;

1)limiting the ability of coastal wetlands

No doubt, coastal wetlands have many advantages to sea life and biodiversity. It provides
armour from flood and recreational activities to humans. Coastal wetlands also provide
fishing and help shorelines from erosion. However, the recent mass activities of the urbane
population to heavily depend on fossil fuels, and carbon emissions have limited the eco-
friendly activities of coastal wetlands. There is an expansion of urban areas and aquaculture
which is raising the sea level and posing flood threats and erosion of seashore lines (Palardy,
2023).

2) speeding up of ocean currents

The second challenge from the landscape of 2023 can be seen as a shift in the ocean currents.
The sea surface has become warmer which is accelerating the ocean currents. It is causing the
inability of oceans to absorb the high temperature thus causing a challenging environment for
fisheries, marine life and coastal activities (Palardy, 2023).

3) Amazon under threat

According to Edward et al.,(2023) around 18% of the Amazon ecosystem has been
deforested. Amazon is home to around 47 million households and supports 140 billion of
greenhouse, failure to keep its forestation can turn it into a carbon source rather carbon sink.
Deforestation in the Amazon has posed a serious climate challenge.

4) Ozon layer depletion

According to a study Ugur Korkut and Hasan(2023) it will take 50 years for ozon to repair
itself even if the combined efforts by the Paris Agreement and Kyoto protocol go to an
extreme level. The depletion of Ozon brought the warmest year of 2023 in decades. It has
been stated by the UN report that if the Ozone hole is not repaired by the next 4-5 decades
then the global landscape will face unprecedented challenges for survival.

5) corporate capitalism

Recent studies by scholars suggest that corporate capitalism is unaware of climate risk by
ignoring the growing pollution and only seeking profits. The corporate world has caused
environmental insecurity due to heavy reliance on natural resources and completely ignoring
the environmental protection metrics(Michael,2023). The leaders of firms have a constant
urge to dominate the industries through technological innovation but completely at the cost of
environmental security. World leaders are completely ignorant of it and letting the corporate
world exploit the natural resources and cause more pollution (Khan, 2023). The challenges
that colonialism and corporate capitalism have posed can be cited from the following
examples:

Firms that pursue high commodity prices are using natural resources and poisoning the site
areas or destroying them. For example; Blockadia, a Greece area, has mining activities which
are destroying this particular region in the quest for high prices. According to 2023 studies,
the widening depletion of natural resources will cause the earth to face warming and
temperature to observe 10c by the end of 2030. Climate change has overwhelmed the issue of
terrorism and has caused environmental security challenges for the countries at their core
(Khan, 2023).

A study conducted by (Mohamed, 2023) reveals that climate change will cause many
challenges out of which human displacement is major. The areas that will be highly affected
are Maldives, Dubai, Manila, Bangkok, Bangladesh and Venice.

5) Climate change displacement

According to a study, the 2023 landscape reveals a defining challenge of the environment
which is “climate change displacement. This study suggests that there have been record-
breaking heatwaves and floods in the global world in 2023 which have caused the evacuation
of people and the closure of schools. People are forced to be displaced to safer places by
leaving their homes. A report by the UN states that in 2023 extreme weather has displaced 20
million people from their homes to other areas in their countries. This has multiplied the
threat. People displacing to new places have to compete for food and resources, pollution
increases even more and this forced migration is causing insecurities as well (Mohamed,
2023).

Opportunities to mitigate the environmental risk

From the landscape of 2023, there have been many opportunities revealed to motivate the
environmental risk. These are mentioned below:

An example of climate climate-responsive country that the world can follow is Bangladesh
which has an “adaption strategy” to work for environmental security issues. Another example
is the joint agreement between US and China made in Glasgow Cop where both countries
have agreed upon using fewer carbon resources. These examples set a zero-sum approach to
bringing environmental security (Parsons,2023).

Environment terrorism is the new term that current studies use to show the attitude of
humans toward depleting natural resources at an accelerating rate. The 21st century outlooks
many opportunities for protecting the environment post-global wars, pandemics and current
corporate capitalism. These new opportunities are to bring a shift in the use of resources by
shifting towards renewable energy sources.

Financial assistance to developing countries that heavily depend on fossil fuels can bring
environmental security. For example, Morocco highly depends on oil and fuel imports
making 40% of domestic needs fulfilled by non-renewable energy sources. Shifting the
attitude of Morocco and other countries towards renewable energy sources can bring much
change and opportunity to practice modern techniques of innovating and fixing the cracks in
the environment (Aydin et al.,2023).

Imposing the tax on developed elites and developing countries can help shift their goals and
net-zero carbon emission can be achieved by the end of 2050. Asian countries like China are
the major contributors to world pollution. China needs to impose a national tax on using
carbon so that a shift can be brought in its behaviour. According to studies, market failure has
also caused an increase in carbon usage (Angela and Margit,2023). There is a term known as
greenhouse gas emission tax. This can be achieved by imposing heavy taxes on business
tycoons that use carbon and rely heavily on non-renewable energy sources. Market
policymakers have the opportunity to increase the taxes efficiently to replace the carbon
energy sources with more innovative energy sources. An example of a carbon fund is 27
countries including the EU, Singapore, Canada, Ukraine, Japan and Argentina that use taxes
to reduce the use of carbon and give their efforts to make a pollution-free world. Another
opportunity that studies provide is rebuilding biodiversity by imposing regulations on
fisheries and stocks. An example of this is Palau state which has imposed regulations on
ocean food and tourism activities. Fishing regulation has been one of the successful examples
of the Palau government to reduce the growing rate of depleting their biodiversity. An
example of rewinding biodiversity is an attempt by the UN to create a zero-fish zone to save
fisheries reduce their depletion and maintain their biodiversity (Bjorn and Anwar,2023).
Another opportunity is to reverse the process of deforestation to protect the valuable resource
of carbon emissions. An example of this is the Netherlands which has maximised the yield
the production by using alternative resources and avoiding deforestation. Not only the
government but also the study conducted by Forbes suggest the private sector addresses
climate risk and not only focuses on profit making. The corporate world is imposing heavy
risks on climate vulnerabilities that can be reduced by the joint coordination of imposing
regulations on the corporate world these come in the form of strict measures. Paris
Agreement and world carbon-free agreements can help motivate the world to reduce the use
of carbon and become carbon-free. Also, the landscape of 2023 provides an opportunity to
bring a paradigm shift in food production. For example: finding more innovative food
production techniques with equal employment for women can bring changes in the
agriculture industry.

Taking the example of the Netherlands countries can grab the opportunity to diversify their
crops and maximise their yield by choosing different options for growing crops and using
more innovative technologies. Other opportunities to reduce carbon footprint is to inculcate
women more about climate issues getting them involved equally in jobs so that agriculture
production can be maximised and more plants and trees can be grown.

To sum up, the above studies provide insights into how 2023 has created challenges and
opportunities to address the changing environment dynamics. Ranging from extreme
temperatures to drought and the attitude of the corporate world to heavily seek profits at the
cost of destroying or eroding coastal areas, and mines and encouraging deforestation. It is
important to bring a shift in the attitude of the private sector by imposing greenhouse gas
taxes on them or in the shape of imposing regulations by creating zones to avoid more use of
renewable energy sources.

References

1. Ozkan, A., Temiz, H., & Yildiz, Y. (2023). Climate risk, corporate social
responsibility, and firm performance. British Journal of Management, 34(4), 1791-
1810.
2. Köppl, A., & Schratzenstaller, M. (2023). Carbon taxation: A review of the empirical
literature. Journal of Economic Surveys, 37(4), 1353-1388.

3. Larsen, B., & Shah, A. (2023). Carbon Tax as a Tool for Tax Reform and Protecting
Local and Global Environments. In Taxing Choices for Managing Natural Resources,
the Environment, and Global Climate Change: Fiscal Systems Reform
Perspectives (pp. 255-323). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

4. Butt, E. W., Baker, J. C., Bezerra, F. G. S., von Randow, C., Aguiar, A. P., &
Spracklen, D. V. (2023). Amazon deforestation causes strong regional
warming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(45), e2309123120.

5. Griffiths, M. (2023). From Fossil Capitalism to Climate Capitalism: Contemporary

Systems for Capitalist Accumulation and Incremental Climate Action. Political
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6. Pata, U. K., & Ertugrul, H. M. (2023). Do the Kyoto Protocol, geopolitical risks,
human capital and natural resources affect the sustainability limit? A new
environmental approach based on the LCC hypothesis. Resources Policy, 81, 103352.

7. Parsons, S. (2023).” 4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023.

Source: World Resources Institute (WRI). https://www.wri.org/insights/environment-
development-stories-2023

8. Khan, Z. (2023). What are the current opportunities and threats facing environmental
security? Source: Modern Diplomacy. https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/08/12/what-
are-the-current-opportunities-and-threats-facing-environmental-security/

9. Mohamed, E. (2023). Climate change displacement: ‘One of the defining challenges.’

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/15/explainer-climate-changes-effects-on-
global-migration.
10. Palardy, J. (2023) “2023 Brings New Conservation Challenges—and Opportunities”
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2023/01/10/2023-brings-
new-conservation-challenges-and-opportunities