We can decrease the risk of conflict and build peace by implementing projects that improve communities’ ability to adapt to climate change and increase their resilience. For example, through strengthening people’s livelihoods, providing them with alternative livelihoods, or supporting them in strong natural resource management, it is possible not only to address income generation, but also improve relationships within and between communities, which can increase social cohesion and contribute to peace. Examples from Ethiopia, Sudan, Nepal and Peru show us the possibilities. We are not at a stage where we can definitively identify what works and what doesn’t when it comes to addressing climate security.
Environmental peacebuilding offers another entry point for building and sustaining peace. Natural resources and the environment are central to many people’s livelihoods in fragile and conflict-affected settings and one of the most important things that needs to be done in the aftermath of conflict is provide people with livelihood opportunities.
The environmental peacebuilding field has grown tremendously and interest from practitioners and policymakers has grown with it. It started as a research endeavor in the early 2000s with Ken Conca and Geoff Dabelko’s book Environmental Peacemaking, which focused on how cooperation over environmental issues can build peace. Since then, much more research has tried to understand how the environment can be used as an entry point and what the conditions are for it to be successful. Now, the environmental peacebuilding community has its own association with members from research and practitioner communities to exchange experiences and learn from each other.
On the research front, there have not been many major developments in the last few years. But, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently published a report called Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk, which brings together all the research on the relationship between the environment and conflict and makes recommendations for the policy community—broadly—on how to navigate a just and peaceful transition toward more sustainable practices in the long-run.
The needs and priorities of local communities should be accounted for in any project or program that is being implemented because they are essential for a successful outcome. Now, this is not a new lesson; research has shown this time and time again, but development and peacebuilding programs and projects still struggle to do this, and the dominant model is a top-down one that involves little consultation with communities.
We also know that the effects of climate change can increase the likelihood of conflict. For peacebuilders, this means that the work that they do has to be climate-sensitive and account for how climate change will affect the projects, programs, and agreements that they implement and negotiate so that they do not break down in the future. The city of Baidoa in Somalia, for example, experienced an influx of internally displaced persons and climate-induced land degradation, which undermined a local power sharing agreement, in turn negatively affecting governance and statebuilding efforts in Somalia.
The other side of the coin is that addressing the effects of climate change can reduce conflict and build peace if it is done well. Climate adaptation projects, for example, can not only help communities adapt to the effects of climate change, but they can also increase trust and build social cohesion within and between communities, which is important for sustainable peace. In terms of relevance for peacebuilders, it points toward thinking more broadly about how to do peacebuilding and considering entry points that addressing the effects of climate change can offer.
Farah Hegazi
I am a researcher in the Climate Change and Risk programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). My research focuses on understanding what the relationship between climate change and violence looks like in different settings, and how interventions to address the effects of climate change can be used to build peace. I mainly focus on the connections between climate change, food security, and conflict, and on climate adaptation and peacebuilding.
