ABSTRACT
Since the release of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2007, climate change has come to be regarded as both an immediate and long-term threat to sustainable development and an amplifier of violent conflict.1 Changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are already undermining livelihoods, reducing the productivity of key economic sectors, disrupting human health, and affecting settlement and migration patterns ( IPCC
2007). Little research has been carried out on climate impacts in fragile postconflict situations. However, there is reason to believe that such impacts add considerable stress to the governance structures and other institutions that provide basic services and protect people from injury and loss, thereby weakening people’s confidence in the social order. Additional challenges posed by climate impacts include increased displacement, reduced agricultural outputs, and a heightened risk of conflict recurrence (Smith and Vivekananda 2009). Concerns that climate change has and will continue to (1) contribute to violent conflict and (2) obstruct sustainable development have important implications for peacebuilding.
