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Tackling these increasingly inter-linked problems, means tackling poverty, says Oliver Pearce
People have fought wars over water for centuries. Now the climate of the entire world is changing, exposing hundreds of millions of people to worse water scarcity than ever, and introducing what former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett describes as a ‘new and potentially disastrous dynamic’ into world affairs. Conflicts over natural resources are just one of the ways in which poor countries are being ravaged by climate change, while also dealing with other issues such as HIV/AIDS and plunging commodity prices.
Wars have occurred within and between states since before the modern world, and so we know that their effect on poor communities is almost always negative. Although our knowledge of the consequences of climate change is more limited, the evidence shows that poor communities are suffering first but also worst. So when the dual crises of climate change and conflict coincide, poor communities are invariably too vulnerable to withstand such shocks.
During the summer of 2007 a group of Christian Aid supporters from around the world marched 1000 miles across the UK to highlight the deepening crisis, imploring government, businesses and citizens to play their part and ‘cut the carbon’. Some of Christian Aid’s partner organisations shared their first hand experiences with the marchers, of life on the frontline of climate change: major weather disasters, desertification, floods and crop failures. These are the people working in communities who have done least to cause the problem but are also least able to deal with it. One of the marchers was Mohamed Adow from Northern Aid - a Kenyan non-governmental organisation (NGO). Mohamed spoke eloquently about the devastation wreaked by climate change in the communities where he works, describing recent droughts which have killed 80 per cent of their livestock and deprived families of their major source of wealth and income.
Christian Aid’s recent report The Climate of Poverty reveals how, in the same region of Africa, water scarcity leads to conflicts between different groups and to the deaths of people and animals. Traditional systems of resource distribution have broken down, as groups divide along ethnic lines when the conflicts over water become violent.
In the case of Kenya, there are internal conflicts such as those between groups of pastoralists, and more external pressures, such as Somali communities seeking refuge from turmoil in their own country. Even without climate change, these conflicts would be difficult to manage.
It will be increasingly important to distribute resources such as water in ways that successfully manage conflicts. There will be more instances of poor groups facing potentially catastrophic changes to their livelihoods, and the challenge of adapting to these effects is more acute in situations where there has been violent conflict or where disputes remain unsettled.
It is simplistic to say that a particular conflict is due to climate change, and doing so helps to absolve people - donors, governments, rich elites - of responsibility. Instead, the looming crises of climate change must hasten our support for better development, where decisions about resources are made in a collaborative way, ensuring the most vulnerable are protected.
Climate change will invariably accentuate long-standing conflicts where these already exist, but it would be a mistake to lose sight of the complexity of why violent conflicts occur, persist, and how they keep poor people poor.
A central message that we at Christian Aid are learning from our partners, and are promulgating to supporters, decision-makers and other groups, is that our response to climate change must mean renewing our commitment and effectiveness in tackling extreme poverty.
Christian Aid works to challenge the systems that keep people poor, which is why we are engaged in work covering both conflicts and climate change. Violent conflicts occur when disputes are not contained by institutions of governance - laws, courts, parliaments, town halls, civil servants and so on - leaving poor people caught in the middle. Climate change is the greatest collective problem we face as a global community, and requires corresponding rules to make sure finite resources are distributed justly.
Oliver Pearce is Policy Analyst for Christian Aid |
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