Climate change is the ultimate threat multiplier. It will aggravate fragility, contribute to social upheaval and even violent conflicts. The problem is the seven compound risks that emerge when the impacts of climate change interact with problems that many weak states are already facing. Single-sector interventions alone will not suffice to deal with the systemic nature of compound climate-fragility risks.

Allowing global temperatures to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial averages could cost the global economy $12 trillion by 2050, or 10 percent of the entire global GDP over that period, according to a new report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of four dozen highly vulnerable countries.

Climate change poses numerous challenges for international river basins that are likely to intensify in the decades to come. These challenges will have significant socio-economic and political repercussions. Ensuring sustainable development and political stability in these basins, therefore requires effective adaptation to the impacts of climate change. To overcome existing shortcomings and strengthen adaptive capacities, the water (cooperation) and climate communities should engage proactively and seek to create synergies between their instruments. Foreign policymakers should support them in this process.

This timely book offers a unique interdisciplinary inquiry into the prospects of different political narratives on climate migration. It identifies the essential angles on climate migration – the humanitarian narrative, the migration narrative and the climate change narrative – and assesses their prospects. The author contends that although such arguments will influence global governance, they will not necessarily achieve what advocates hope for.