Climate Change & Security in Africa: Clear Risks, Nuanced Impacts

This paper addresses links between climate patterns and conflict in Africa in order to raise awareness of present and emerging climate-related risks in the region. The December 2014 publication focuses on climate-related stability factors in Mali, Darfur and South Sudan – including food security, migration.

The key messages in this report include the point that because climate change does not impact conflict directly, policy responses can potentially prevent the adverse impact that climate change has on security outcomes like conflict. Government policies on food distribution, migration, land and water use, natural resource management, adaptation aid distribution, and any number of other issues impact how their populations experience climate change and thus the grievances that conflict actors may leverage to drive conflict.