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Climate change and conflict

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 4, pages 144–148 (2023)Cite this article

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Connections between climate and conflict have been the centre of critical debate and discussion. In this Viewpoint, five researchers provide their thoughts and opinions on the topic, outlining the types of conflict that can be linked to climate variability, and how these relationships might evolve with ongoing climate change.

Why is there debate about climate–conflict connections, and where do you stand?

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Acknowledgements

N.v.U. acknowledges support from European Research Council grant no. 101055133.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC, USA

    Cullen S. Hendrix

  2. Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Cullen S. Hendrix

  3. Center for Climate & Security, Washington, DC, USA

    Cullen S. Hendrix

  4. Center for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Vally Koubi

  5. Instiute of Economics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Vally Koubi

  6. Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Jan Selby

  7. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Ayesha Siddiqi

  8. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Nina von Uexkull

  9. Peace Research Institute Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Nina von Uexkull

Authors
  1. Cullen S. Hendrix
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  2. Vally Koubi
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  3. Jan Selby
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  4. Ayesha Siddiqi
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  5. Nina von Uexkull
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Contributions

Cullen S. Hendrix is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, professor at the Korbel School, University of Denver and non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Climate & Security. His work on climate–conflict links concentrates on the interplay between local climate conditions, global markets and conflict, and has appeared in journals across geography, marine science and political science.

Vally Koubi is a professor at ETH Zurich and the University of Bern. Her research focuses on the effects of climate change on migration and conflict, using microlevel surveys and survey experiments in countries of the Global South. Her work has appeared in Climatic Change, International Organization, Journal of Peace Research, Nature Climate Change and Population & Environment.

Jan Selby is a professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research adopts a political ecology lens on issues of climate change, water, energy and security. His latest book is Divided Environments: An International Political Ecology of Climate Change, Water and Security.

Ayesha Siddiqi is an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge. Her research focus is on hazard-based disasters and their interaction with existing insecurities in people’s lives. Her monograph on this subject, In the Wake of Disaster: Islamists, the State, and a Social Contract in Pakistan, was published in 2019. She has done community-level fieldwork in a number of different country contexts in the Global South.

Nina von Uexkull is an associate professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and associate senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Her work on climate change and conflict has focused on the rural economy, using microlevel surveys, subnational statistics and long-term scenarios. Her work has appeared in Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, amongst others. She received the 2022 Oscar Prize from Uppsala University.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cullen S. Hendrix, Vally Koubi, Jan Selby, Ayesha Siddiqi or Nina von Uexkull.

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Hendrix, C.S., Koubi, V., Selby, J. et al. Climate change and conflict. Nat Rev Earth Environ 4, 144–148 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00382-w

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