Ethiopia is a key security player in the Horn of Africa: while the country can act as an important catalyst for peace, it can also be a significant source of instability if conflict risks and climate resiliency are not managed proactively.
On 29 November in Rabat, adelphi partnered with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to hold a regional dialogue on climate change and fragility risks in North Africa and the Sahel.
Years ago, Mohamed’s family had enough to eat, despite being poor. His daughter owned a vegetable stall at a bustling market in northeastern Nigeria. The family had options: during the dry season, when Lake Chad was shallow, Mohamed could farm; and during the wet season, he could fish or graze his cattle. But then things began to change.
The new study Shoring up Stability demonstrates, for the first time, how climate change interacts with conflict and exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region. To launch the report and discuss its findings with local policy-makers, experts and practitioners, the German Embassy in Niger, adelphi and CNESS co-organised a launch event on 24 October in Niamey. Insights from Niger point to the importance of investing in governance rather than technical fixes.
The public meeting is organised by the Netherlands Atlantic Youth and study association BASIS. Speakers are Clingendael's Senior Associate Fellow Tom Middendorp and ICCT's Senior Research Fellow Liesbeth van der Heide.
Rather than acting as direct drivers of conflict, climate change and variability are seen as intermediary sources of risk, or ‘threat multipliers’. This is because they interact with existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions to increase livelihood insecurity and the probability of conflict in certain situations. In this light, this report explores the complex and tangled links between climate variability and change and the proliferation of armed networks operating in northern Niger.
The Lake Chad region is caught in a conflict trap. It is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies with an estimated 10.7 million people in need of assistance. adelphi’s study Shoring up Stability demonstrates, for the first time, how climate change is interacting with the conflict and compounds the crisis in the Lake Chad region. The launch event will present the findings from this climate and fragility assessment on Lake Chad.
The Lake Chad region is caught in a conflict trap. It is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies with an estimated 10.7 million people in need of assistance. adelphi’s study Shoring up Stability demonstrates, for the first time, how climate change is interacting with the conflict and compounds the crisis in the Lake Chad region. The launch event will present the findings from this climate and fragility assessment on Lake Chad.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands has contributed $28 million to back FAO's work to boost the resilience of food systems in Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan - part of a new initiative to scale-up resilience-based development work in countries affected by protracted crises.
In this interview, EcoPeace Directors Nada Majdalani (Palestine), Yana Abu-Taleb (Jordan) and Gidon Bromberg (Israel) explain why disengaging from a shared environment can aggravate the region’s security challenges.
Iraq is on the verge of an environmental breakdown, and climate change is not helping. The country's fragile environment and the increasing scarcity of natural resources — particularly water — are a result of poor environmental management, as well as several political and historical factors. However, as climate change impacts add to the existing pressures, the environmental collapse turns into a security issue.
Africa is vulnerable to natural variations in climate and human-induced climate change. Adapting to these impacts is key to achieving Africa’s development targets, and requires a coordinated and synergistic approach from a diverse range of actors across sectors, as well as better understanding of the drivers of risk and vulnerability. The African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) is an open platform for sharing the latest African climate research among researchers, policy makers, practitioners and development partners.
“Climate Security risks will materialise in very different ways and forms, whether we talk about Lake Chad or about the Arctic, Bangladesh and the Small Island Developing States,” said the EU’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Joao Vale de Almeida, in his opening remarks. “But for the EU, there is no doubt, as underlined in 2016 in our Global Strategy, and reaffirmed by the 28 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, that climate change is a major threat to the security of the EU and to global peace and security more generally,” he said.