GECHS

The links between climate change, peace and war are analysed in the recent publication “A climate of conflict” from International Alert. International Alert is an independent peacebuilding organisation that has worked for over 20 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace and security in communities affected by violent conflict. In order to understand how the effects of climate change will interact with socio-economic and political problems in poorer countries, the report traces the “consequences of consequences”. This process highlights four key elements of risk - political instability, economic weakness, food insecurity and large-scale migration. Based on the analysis of these elements, the report points out twelve recommendations for addressing climate change in fragile states.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has recently begun talking about the challenge of ‘climate security’, and former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that “Global climate change must take its place alongside the threats of conflict, poverty and the proliferation of deadly weapons that have traditionally monopolized first-order political attention”. Climate change poses clears risks to Australia’s interests in trade, aid and political stability in Asia. This not inconsiderable risk poses some complex challenges to Australian foreign policy. GECHS SSC member Jon Barnett has recently published a policy note exploring the risks climate change poses to security in Asia and the options for Australian foreign policy. [Download PDF, 172 k]

GEHCS associate Siri Eriksen is the lead author of GECHS Report 2007:1 on climate change adaptation and poverty reduction, prepared for the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The report analyses interactions between poverty and climate change, and recommends measures for incorporating adaptation to climate change in poverty reduction efforts. The main message from the report is the urgency of integrating climate change considerations in all parts of development cooperation, not only in the environmental related activities. Development measures in all sectors influence the vulnerability to climate change of poor people, as well as their capacity to adapt to climatic changes. A summary in Norwegian can be downloaded here, and paper copies of the report and the Norwegian summary can be provided from the GECHS IPO.

Lyla Mehta, GECHS SSC member, was one of the contributors to the Human Development Report 2006, and her background paper “Water and Human Development: Capabilities, Entitlements and Power” is now available online. The paper highlights how the multifaceted aspects of water are often neglected in official policy debates. It looks at a human development approach to water scarcity and asks what entitlements and capabilities would mean with respect to water. Efforts are made to explore the entitlements framework for both water as a basic need/right and for the wider and more productive uses of water. See also the full Human Development Report and all background papers, thematic papers and issue notes.

GECHS Associate Siri Eriksen and IPO staffer Kirsten Ulsrud, along with co-authors Jeremy Lind and Bernard Muok, have published a policy brief for the African Centre for Technology Studies on the “Urgent Need to Increase Adaptive Capacities”. The article presents new research on the interactions between conflicts and climate change adaptation, and makes recommendations for actions to assist the adaptation and development process of people in a constant state of crisis. The findings are derived from a three-year project on climate adaptation as a livelihood struggle among dryland populations in Kenya. [Download the policy brief]