In climate security hotspots, where natural resources under severe climate stress are driving conflict, climate action and peacebuilding can and should go hand in hand. Northern Kenya and Nigeria’s Northwest and Middle Belt are examples of such hotspots where peacebuilding and climate action can effectively be integrated.
Communities in these regions are highly dependent on agriculture and pastoralism, contending with severe climate stress from rising temperatures, droughts and changes in intensity and frequency of precipitation, often causing flooding. People face the additional pressures of food insecurity as well as limited and unequal access to arable land, pasture and water. Natural resource competition creates tensions that, when mismanaged, often culminate in violence.
What is the paper about?
This paper presents lessons from Powering Peace Through Climate Action, our project funded by Irish Aid. Within it, we placed communities affected by climate change and natural resource-related conflicts in the driving seat of integrated climate action and peacebuilding approaches and activities. We worked with local communities in Kenya and Nigeria to develop practical solutions to their challenges, and in doing so, generate learning that informs wider policy and practice.
The paper demonstrates how integrating peacebuilding approaches into climate programming can contribute to more effective, needs-oriented and environmentally and socially sustainable responses to climate security risks.
What will you find in the paper
This new resource:
- Outlines the project approach and the climate security contexts in which project activities took place
- Demonstrates various benefits of integrating peacebuilding and climate responses
- Examines programming and policy interventions that can contribute to simultaneously managing conflicts, reducing conflict risks and adapting to the impacts of climate change.
