Where Macro Meets Micro: How Climate Change Fuels Violent Extremism

Sep 11, 2019 | Tom Middendorp and Reinier Bergema
View Original

Climate change is a “direct and existential threat,” the Council of the European Union concluded in February 2019. In the past half-century, the most vulnerable—particularly across Western, Central, and Eastern Africa, and several countries in the Middle East- have been hit disproportionately hard, with climate projections indicating further deterioration. The high level of climate vulnerability in these areas—more often than not combined with limited political, economic, governance, and social readiness to adapt to or mitigate these risks—is increasingly putting strain on populations already struggling to earn a living and feed their families. Poverty, (youth) unemployment, food insecurity, and, ultimately, the erosion of livelihoods will, if unaddressed, lead to population displacement, rural-urban migration, and increased local demand (and thus competition for land and water), fueling social tensions and violent conflict.