ABSTRACT
The environmental question is not a new issue for humanitarian organizations. The engagement for people affected by sudden or slow-onset changes in the environment has always been among the main chailenges for those organizations, besides the support of war-affected people. This is especially true, as conflicts develop significantly stronger impacts under conditions of environmental change (Strömberg 2007; Fink and Redaelli 2011; Rodeila-Boitreaud and Wagnery 2011). Already today, humanitarian organizations perceive to face new challenges, especially regarding the scope and frequency of emergency situations triggered or amplified by environmental hazards. Over the past few years, between 15 and 42 million people have been displaced by such hazards annually, with often a high share of displacements due to weatherrelated events that are at least potentially influenced by global climate change (IDMC 2012: 5). In comparison with 42.5 million people that were displaced by violent conflicts and political prosecution in 2011 (see UNHCR 2012), those numbers show the comparably high scope of environmental hazards as triggers ofemergency and displacement situations. The United Nations Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA) underscores that climate change is not perceived as a "distant future threat," but as a very real phenomenon that already affects societies all over the globe (OCHA n.d.).
