On 7 February, Janani Vivekananda, International Alert’s Climate Change and Conflict Programme Manager, spoke at the Strengthening Responses to Climate
Variability in South Asia conference at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC. Janani presented four case studies - on Nepal, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh - to illustrate levels of risk and resilience to environmental change at village level.
Wilson Center (c) 2013
Last month saw delegates from around the world assemble in Doha for the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in an effort to inch towards a global deal on climate change. Yet discussions on how much financing should be provided and by whom didn’t reach satisfying conclusions, despite a week’s worth of negotiations.
Despite its 40,000 plus participants and hangers-on, the Rio+20 conference was hardly headline-grabbing. It should have been because it was about saving the natural environment – and the fact that it wasn’t is a reflection not just on media news values, but also on what happened before and during.
International Alert in cooperation with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, EU Brussels, and AIM Centre for Development Management, convened an expert roundtable discussion on the security implications of climate change in the Philippines on 24th April 2012.
Video: © Center for American Progress

International Alert’s fifth dialogue on climate change, conflict and fragility, held on 27th January 2012 in London, explored the connections between climate change and community level security, drawing on new research from West Africa and South Asia. During the discussion, participants explored the practicalities of linking top-down policies with on the ground realities in communities already facing complex risks to their human security.
Photo: © International Alert / Tyndall Centre / DEV, University of East Anglia

By Clémence Bessière
This practice note has been produced as part of The Initiative for Peacebuilding – Early Warning Analysis to Action (IfP-EW), a consortium led by International Alert and funded by the European Commission.
Photo: © International Alert/Niranjan Shrestha

Photo: © Aurélien Tobie/International Alert
This summary report is based on a research project in collaboration with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia. The research analyses the links between environmental stress, climate change, human security, conflict and adaptation at different scales and localities along the Niger River. Drawing on the study’s findings, this report offers key policy guidelines for resilience building, adaptation and reducing conflict. The full report can be found at: http://www.international-alert.org/resources/publications/climate-change-water-and-conflict-niger-river-basin
This report is based on a research project in collaboration with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia. The research analyses the links between environmental stress, climate change, human security, conflict and adaptation at different scales and localities along the Niger River. The third longest river in Africa, the Niger River and its tributaries are a key source of water for the estimated 100 million people living in the basin, especially for the drier regions within the western Sahel zone. Drawing on the study’s findings, this report offers key policy guidelines for resilience building, adaptation and reducing conflict.
The South Asia Network of Climate Change and Security, having met in Male’ on the 1st of December 2011 to discuss opportunities and challenges related to climate change and security in South Asia, offer the following views to the Parties and Governments of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The South Asia Network of Climate Change and Security, having met in Male’ on the 1st of December 2011 to discuss opportunities and challenges related to climate change and security in South Asia, offer the following views to the Parties and Governments of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
This note explains the importance of using a conflict-sensitive approach to responding to climate change in South Asia. It offers guidelines and emerging principles on how climate change and development policy makers and practitioners can promote peace-positive adaptation actions which can yield the double dividend of building resilience to climate change and conflict. Issues of water, land, energy and food security are highly affected by climate change. At the same time, inappropriate governance of these issues lies at the root of conflicts across the region. The note proposes that engagement in these areas needs to be approached in a comprehensive way which maximises the productive capacity of local communities, while also minimising the risk of instability and conflict.