Why Addressing the Climate Crisis Can Help Build More Sustainable Peace

Florian Krampe, Farah Hegazi, and Stacy D. VanDeveer
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Thirty years of research underlies the realization that climate change poses substantial national, international and human security risks, but analysts have only recently shifted their focus toward how to simultaneously build peace in post-conflict environments and grapple with the dual challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change. In a recent article in World Development article, we propose what causal pathways can simultaneously facilitate climate change adaptation, increase resilience, improve natural resource governance, and build more sustainable peace. 

Recognizing the Climate Crisis

The alarming tone and conclusions of the recently released Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change demonstrates that we cannot build and sustain peace without explicitly addressing climate change adaptation and resource governance. Indeed, climate change is an existential challenge to nature and our societies and a central security concern that is changing security landscapes around the globe.