What Do We Know About Climate Change, Peace and Conflict?

Mar 8, 2022 | Tobias Ide
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Very recently, Working Group 2 of the IPCC released its latest (sixth) report on the impacts of climate change, including on peace and conflict.

The peace- and conflict-related part of the recent IPCC report also has its share of weaknesses and inconsistencies – which isn’t surprising for a document of this scope and volume. Chapter 4.3.6 on water-related conflicts, for instance, contains a much more conservative assessment of the climate-conflict nexus than the rest of the report. It also does not consider several more recent studies on the topic and completely ignores the environmental peacebuilding literature (despite the latter’s focus on water).

Such minor concerns apart, the IPCC Working Group 2’s 2022 report presents a comprehensive and coherent summary of current knowledge on climate change, peace and conflict. Particularly in the context of major wars being currently fought in Ethiopia, Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere, this knowledge can hopefully help to build climate resilient peace in the future.