Climate Change and Adaptation

Alert recently convened a meeting of security experts to look at the likelihood of increased conflict arising from changes to our climate already underway. The newswire Reuters Foundation AlertNet has reported the story here, or you can read the article below:

Mid January to mid February 2010

As part of our partnership with radio station Passion for the Planet this month you can listen to the following interviews:

What impact does conflict have on our climate and what impact does climate change have on conflict?

Does overseas interference in conflict areas bring positive change or leave a lasting negative legacy?

And which countries are most vulnerable to conflict in the future?

International Alert, together with the Bangladesh Institute for Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) and  the Regional Centre for Security Studies and the Peacebuilding and Development Institute in Sri Lanka, co-hosted an expert roundtable on the Security Implications of Climate Change in South Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 29th-30th March 2010.

This article is an abstract from Dan Smith’s contribution to the new Foreign Policy Centre pamphlet Tackling the world water crisis: Reshaping the future of foreign policy.

Water is a basic condition for life. We depend upon it for daily use, agriculture and industry. Both declining availability and quality as well as an excess of water undermines welfare, impairs human security and generates risk of conflict.

Taken from Dan Smith’s blog, which can be found at www.dansmithsblog.com

International Alert was recently invited to speak at the GLOBECRAFT Conflict and Climate Change Symposium hosted by the Geneva School of Diplomacy on 7 – 9 September 2009. The symposium brought together experts from the security, climate change, development and humanitarian relief sectors to discuss the emerging security implications of climate change. Participants ranged from high-level climate scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, directors and advisors of relevant UN bodies and NGOs, to government ministers and CEOs of climate-related corporations.

In Liberia, the process of recovery from war includes encouraging both ex-combatants and former IDPs to return to their place of origin and resume their lives there. There are many difficulties, not least the reluctance of some excombatants to go and to stay, and the reluctance of some communities to accept them back.

When the Koshi River which flows through the Eastern Terai region of Nepal flooded in summer 2008, it displaced more than 60,000 people, damaged the national highway, and destroyed crops. Since then, major concerns have been voiced that the fragile embankment will break in more places, flooding an even greater area.

The severity of risk is closely linked to the poor maintenance of dams and river barriers. Responsibility thus ultimately lies with the government.

In the lead-up to the next global summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico, International Alert along with the Delegation of the European Union in Nepal held a dialogue on climate change, security and governance on 3rd September 2010 in Kathmandu.