REPORT
A New Climate for Peace
Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks
This independent report, commissioned by the G7 members, identifies seven compound climate-fragility risks that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies in the decades ahead. Based on a thorough assessment of existing policies on climate change adaptation, development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding, the report recommends that the G7 take concrete action, both as individual members and jointly, to tackle climate-fragility risks and increase resilience to them.
BLOG
Resilience Compass
When climate change exacerbates conflicts and crises, resilience must be the compass for foreign policy. The Resilience Compass features news, reflections and opinions on climate change and fragility, with contributions from the Wilson Center’s New Security Beat, International Alert and guest authors.
RESOURCES
Factbook, Readings, Events
This collection of resources complements and extends the analysis of the report. It contains an interactive factbook allowing users to explore case studies from around the world and provides background readings and contextualized report and event summaries.
Chad is the country most vulnerable to climate change – here’s why
23 June, 2017 by Hakim Abdi
Of the 186 countries assessed in a recent survey of climate vulnerability, Chad was rated most in peril. A combination of high poverty, frequent conflicts, and the risk of both droughts and floods means the central African nation is bottom of the list, just below Bangladesh and some way behind Norway, the country least vulnerable to climate change.
Lessons From International Water Sharing Agreements for Dealing With Climate Change
21 June, 2017 by Shlomi Dinar
Scientists agree that many countries in tropical, subtropical, and arid regions should expect changes to water availability and supply from climate change. The U.S. intelligence community has likewise warned of water-driven challenges not only for countries directly affected by water changes, but indirectly to various U.S. national security interests. Perhaps not surprisingly then, the popular literature has been quite clear about prophesizing wars over water.
High and dry: Degraded lands are driving people from their homes
19 June, 2017 by UN Environment
Across the world, land degradation is forcing people to flee their homes and homelands. Already, more than 500 million hectares of farmland – an area more than half the size of China – have been completely abandoned due to drought, desertification and land mismanagement.
INTERVIEW: Lake Chad – The most complex humanitarian crisis of our time?
14 June, 2017
The world’s most extensive humanitarian crisis is currently playing out in the Lake Chad region, with some 17 million people affected, and 7 million suffering food insecurity. We spoke with Ambassador Hinrich Thölken, Permanent Representative of Germany to FAO, WFP and IFAD, who travelled to both Nigeria and Chad to gain a better understanding of the different compound pressures.
Australia should lead, not sleep walk, on climate security in the Indo-Pacific
13 June, 2017 by Rob Sturrock (Centre for Policy Development)
Internationally, Australia resides in the region worst affected by climate change, a so called ‘disaster alley’. Robert Sturrock from the Centre of Policy Development argues that policy action to address climate vulnerabilities in Australia and the Indo-Pacific is not sufficient, and that Australia should offer leadership to encourage regional cooperation and prepare for climate crises.
The UN Wants to Respond to Climate Change and Prevent Conflict, But When?
08 June, 2017 by Jonathan Rozen
Climate change, civil conflict, and violent extremism are among the most significant threats to global human development, peace, and security. UN-led plans to address all three require immediate action to prevent future crises, yet crucial investments may not yield tangible results for years to come—well beyond democratic term limits. Jonathan Rozen reflects on tensions between long-term planning and short-term action.
Food Violence Shows Need for Both Development and Climate Resilience
06 June, 2017 by Benjamin T. Jones
In March, the Trump Administration released a new budget proposal that would cut funding to the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development by 28 percent. At the same time, the White House considered withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords. Critics both outside the administration and within have pointed to the drawbacks of these moves, but the sum of the policy changes could have an even greater impact than the individual parts.
Resilience and Environmental Security in Peacebuilding
24 May, 2017 by Rebecca Froese; Janpeter Schilling; Tobias Ide; Sarah Louise Nash and Jürgen Scheffran
Resilience is a widely used concept among development, environmental, security and peacebuilding organisations. However, it has rarely been applied together with the concept of environmental security, despite the obvious ways in which the concepts complement each other. These concepts can be jointly applied in the peacebuilding sector. Environmental security sharpens the scope of resilience, while resilience allows for taking issues into account that a traditional environmental security perspective might miss.
Risk, But Also Opportunity in Climate Fragility and Terror Link
18 May, 2017 by Florian Krampe
In a recent article for New Security Beat, Colin Walch made the case that the abandonment of some communities in Mali to deal with climate change on their own has created “fertile ground” for jihadist recruitment.
Integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
16 May, 2017 by Walid Ali (UNDP)
As the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction soon gets underway, the world is witnessing the highest levels of famine risk in decades. While war and conflict stand as a major root cause of the crisis in the Middle East and Africa, climate change is a key “enhancer” of the humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes.
Food Access and the Logic of Violence During Civil War
17 May, 2017 by Ore Koren
In 1981, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen noted that “starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat.