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Searching for climate–conflict links

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 190–191 (2018)Cite this article

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Environmental scarcity caused by climate change has been implicated as a driver of violent conflict. Now, research shows significant bias in the regions analysed for climate–conflict links. This may limit understanding of the socioeconomic and political conditions in which such conflict occurs, and how these conflicts could be prevented.

Interest in climate–conflict links spiked in the mid-2000s when United Nations Secretary General at the time, Ban Ki-Moon, asserted that the war and humanitarian crisis in Darfur were fuelled by climate-change-related desertification and conflict between farmers and pastoral communities4. More recently, Syria has become the go-to example of a conflict caused by climate change, with then US President Obama saying that climate-change-related drought and rapid urbanization “helped fuel the early unrest in Syria, which descended into civil war”5. Even if climate links to these specific conflicts are contested — in each case, it is difficult to argue that climate change was the cause or even a principal cause of the conflict6, 7 — they have nevertheless driven popular and scholarly interest.

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  1. University of Denver, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, Denver, CO, USA

    Cullen S. Hendrix

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  1. Cullen S. Hendrix
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Correspondence to Cullen S. Hendrix.

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Hendrix, C.S. Searching for climate–conflict links. Nature Clim Change 8, 190–191 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0083-3

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