This article finds evidence that “risk of armed-conflict outbreak is enhanced by climate related disaster occurrence in ethnically fractionalized countries”. The authors state that while each conflict is the result of a very context-specific mixture of factors, natural disasters triggered by anthropogenic climate change might act as a threat multiplier.

For the abstract and full article please see here.

Out of the ashes of World War II, the United Nations (UN) was founded to maintain global peace, rights and security. Today, the world is a dramatically different place. Since 1945 the UN has helped institutionalise human rights across the world, assisted millions of refugees fleeing persecution and built agreement to address emergent global challenges like climate change. These successes are grounds for hope, not complacency. Since 1945, the risks to international peace and security have also transformed. Today, our international systems are faced with interconnected and increasingly prolonged periods of challenge and volatility. And climate risk is threatening the United Nation’s very mission to maintain peace, rights and security. Peacebuilding efforts are unravelling where communities compete for access to climate stressed food and water supply. People are migrating from resource depressed climates in search of stability and challenging the UN’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid at scale. And amidst multiple crises, the capacity to prioritise fundamental pillars of UN governance such as human rights and international law is thinly spread. United We Stand is released as the race for the new Secretary General gets underway. The new UNSG must radically reform the UN to make it fit for purpose in a climate changed world or see its core mission undermined.

The growing number and impact of extreme weather events has led to increasing awareness in the extractives industries of the potential negative impacts of climate change. The industry has started thinking about its own vulnerabilities and the risks climate change could pose. However, there has been little research and debate that takes a more comprehensive look at the links between climate change and mining. With the report Climate Change and Mining.

In this report, Luca Bergamaschi, Nick Mabey, Jonathan Gaventa and Camilla Born from E3G explore practical actions that EU foreign policy institutions could undertake to manage climate risk and an orderly global transition. Read on for a summary of the report here.