Re-Envisioning Climate Action to Sustain Peace and Human Security

Nov 17, 2020 | Catherine Wong, Stephen Gold, Samuel Rizk, and Cassie Flynn
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A combination of crisis, conflict, climate change and COVID-19 means that we live in truly unprecedented times. In complex contexts, the message of environmental protection and climate action can often get lost, particularly, as climate change is still most frequently understood of in terms of socio-economic, development, environmental and disaster risks. However, through these very mechanisms, climate change has manifold implications for peace, stability and security. Insecurity and conflict are likewise, an obstacle to climate action. Yet according to OECD/INCAF, in 37 of the 58 fragile contexts, less than 10 percent of Overseas Development Assistance was allocated to climate change adaptation in 2016 and 2017. Moreover, the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance finds that the majority of countries most vulnerable to climate change, only received less than US$20 per person per year in climate change adaptation financing over the period 2010-2018.

Conflict can also result in the physical destruction of renewable energy, irrigation, and other water-related infrastructure, not to mention other productive capacities. Energy and water infrastructure are strategic assets which are often targeted by non-state armed groups. To punish political opponents the Islamic State seized control of water infrastructure to wilfully cut off and pollute the water supply to farming communities in central and southern Iraq and flood government and military installations, including the city of Abu Ghraib. Its attacks on the energy sector served as attempts to destabilize the government, with a resulting considerable environmental toll.