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Climate change, conflict and crisis in Lake Chad

This year's 2nd edition of the European Security and Defence Union journal is looking into climate change as global security and humanitarian challenge. Janani Vivekananda, Senior Adviser for Climate Change and Peacebuilding at adelphi, has contributed to the journal with a piece on the climate security crisis currently plaguing the Lake Chad basin. Lake Chad is a geophysical and ecological miracle. Situated in the arid Sahel region, two large rivers create an oasis in an otherwise water scarce region. But today, the Lake Chad region is best known for armed conflict, Boko Haram and one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. According to Vivekananda, climate change plays a very real role in exacerbating and prolonging the crisis.

The article includes:

  • The roots of the current crisis
  • Climate change as a risk multiplier
  • Four key climate-fragility risks
  • What should be done?

Download the chapter:

Vivekananda_ESDU_2018_vol30.pdf