View previous stories
	Prepare now for accelerating climate threats, military officials warn by Red Cross, SIPRI, agencies USA   Feb. 2020   Climate change could become a "catastrophic" threat to global security, as people lose their livelihoods, fall ill and battle over scarce water and food, a host of U.S. security, military and intelligence experts have warned.   Pressures from global warming could intensify political tensions, unrest and conflict, fuel violent extremism and break down government security systems, the experts said in a report by the Center of Climate and Security, a nonpartisan policy institute.   Conflict affected countries in Africa and the Middle East were cited as at high risk, but industrialized regions are vulnerable, it said.   "Even at scenarios of low warming, each region of the world will face severe risks to national and global security in the next three decades," the report said.   "Higher levels of warming will pose catastrophic, and likely irreversible, global security risks over the course of the 21st century."   The research warns of displaced populations driven from their homes by rising heat, drought and dwindling water and food supplies.   Disease would spread, and border security and infrastructure would break down as resources grow more scarce, fueling extremism, crime and human trafficking, it said.   "We're really looking at a bleak future if we see more and more countries become fragile," said Rod Schoonover, co-author of the report, who spoke at a briefing about the report.   Panel members included former U.S. government security officials and climate security experts. They assessed threats under two scenarios - if the planet warmed by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius or by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius - by the end of the century.   The U.N. has warned that if emissions are not drastically lowered, the average global temperature will increase by over 4 degrees Celsius by then.   A global pact to fight climate change was agreed upon in Paris in 2015 that aimed to keep the earth's temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius. The administration of Donald Trump has initiated efforts to withdraw the United States out of the Paris pact.   "I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but this is bad stuff," said retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, a former U.S. Army chief of staff.   http://climateandsecurity.org/2020/02/24/release-future-climate-change-presents-high-to-catastrophic-security-threat-warn-u-s-national-security-military-and-intelligence-experts-in-new-assessment/ http://dppa.un.org/en/failure-to-consider-growing-impacts-of-climate-change-will-undermine-our-efforts-conflict-prevention http://reliefweb.int/report/world/when-rain-turns-dust-understanding-and-responding-combined-impact-armed-conflicts-and http://webtv.un.org/search/humanitarian-effects-of-environmental-degradation-and-peace-and-security-security-council-open-vtc/6191918775001/ http://www.crisisgroup.org/global/climate-change-shaping-future-conflict   May 2019   Will a warming planet lead to a more violent world? Or will it inflict more suffering on those living through conflict, by Malcolm Lucard, Editor, Red Cross Red Crescent magazine   Well before Yemen descended into conflict and into what many have called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the country's capital, Sana'a, was already on track to run out of water.   National water authorities and a host of international development actors were warning that unless urgent steps were taken, water resources in the Sana'a basin could disappear. One report said the city's 4.2 million residents could become 'water refugees by 2025'.   Long-term declines in rainfall. A growing population. Increasing cultivation of water-intensive crops. Mismanagement of water resources and inefficient water systems. All these factors have been causing water tables beneath the city to shrink by roughly three to four metres per year.   Before the war, numerous international agencies were working with the Yemeni government on ambitious, multimillion-dollar plans to reduce agricultural water use, improve water collection and cut down waste in urban water systems.   Today, there are only urgent calls for humanitarian action: impending famine caused by drought and conflict; 800,000 people infected with cholera; mass casualties on a daily basis; cities under siege; malnutrition; aid blockades; and energy cuts that allow people to pump water for only a few hours a day.   'The economy is in freefall so to remain economically active, people are turning to water-thirsty crops that deplete the water table even further', says Johannes Bruwer, head of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen. 'It's a perfect storm for creating long-term water problems'.   Along with shortages of fuel, which make water production and transport of goods expensive, the shortage of water is hurting a critical part of the Yemeni economy. 'People cannot work in agriculture the way they used to', says Dr. Moosa Elayah, a Yemeni researcher with the Center for International Development Issues in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. 'Food prices are completely beyond what anyone can afford'.   Even highly developed countries in times of peace are hard pressed to tackle these challenges. But Yemen's ongoing war has pushed sustainable solutions off the table.   'We are facing starvation level in many parts of the country and I think it will get even worse with climate change', says Elayah.   Climate change can exacerbate vulnerabilities brought about by conflict   Yemen is not alone. Across the Middle East and other regions strongly impacted by conflict and climate change, similar stories are unfolding. Unpredictable weather patterns, including prolonged heatwaves, droughts and floods, are exacerbating already horrendous situations for people living under siege, displaced by conflict, forced into migration, confined in detention or living in cities that host large numbers of displaced people.   It's a sword that cuts two ways: as climate change makes it more difficult for people to cope with the hardships of war, conflict makes it almost impossible for people to adapt to climate change.   'Conflict is where vulnerability to climate change is especially high', says Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in The Hague, Netherlands. 'A climate-related shock has a much bigger effect on farmers in a conflict zone than it would in a stable, diversified economy where they would have crop insurance, subsidies and social security systems'.   'In countries with conflict, safety nets for farmers often evaporate just as climate change makes the environment even harsher for agriculture', notes Michael Mason, director of the Middle East Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Rainfall is diminishing while ground temperatures are rising. The problem is that as temperatures rise, food crops require more water to grow.   'There are technological means of overcoming temperature- and precipitation-based impacts on agriculture', says Mason. 'But many countries in the region lack the economic development and political stability to invest in those solutions'.   Mason and other experts warn against blaming the region's water woes on climate change alone. Leaking water systems, over-pumping of water from aquifers, contamination of existing sources from waste water or agricultural run-off are just some of the factors causing far greater impact on available water supplies.   Changing climate patterns   Climate change also means that in many conflict zones, weather patterns are less stable. The arid Lake Chad region, for example, has been getting hotter and drier for some time while seasonal rains no longer come when expected. When they do come, they are more intense. Dry periods, meanwhile, are getting longer.   'Without conflict, people would be better able to cope when the rains don't come on time', says Janani Vivekananda, a researcher with Adelphi, a Berlin-based think tank commissioned by the European Union to study the insecurity risks associated with climate change.   'In the past, if crops failed, the landowner might agree to let the farmer pay after the next crop cycle', she says. 'Now, because so much land is inaccessible due to the fighting, landowners can't wait for their money. So the farmers have to pay even when crops fail. But how are they going to pay?'   In some areas, traditional dispute-resolution systems have been rendered non-functional, while customary laws about who can fish or farm where and when have also been disrupted, says Vivekananda. To survive the hard times, people sometimes cope by cutting down forests to make charcoal, provide sex for food or join armed groups, according to reports Adelphi provided to the European Union.   So what happens when the global climate continues to get even warmer, as many climate experts foresee? In a series of reports in 2018, climate scientists predict that global warming will have particularly harsh consequences for places such as the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel, where temperature rises are outpacing the global average.   Some worry that climate change will exacerbate conflict over resources or lead to mass migration, or both, particularly where community or government coping mechanisms are weak.   For humanitarian organizations, it is becoming increasingly clear that vulnerabilities caused by the overlap of climate change and conflict will grow even more severe.   For the ICRC, climate change reinforced an approach evolving over the past two decades as conflict became increasingly prolonged and urban: working with local water authorities to repair, upgrade or replace ageing pumps, pipes, booster stations and water-treatment facilities.   Climate change is also adding weight to calls for multi-year planning and financing so international and local organizations can accompany communities over longer periods to develop more durable solutions to very complex and interconnected challenges.   Given the broad impact of climate change and conflict any meaningful solution will require a comprehensive, massive and long-term investment. All players (including development banks, international governmental bodies, national governments, community organizations) will need to be involved.   The contribution of the humanitarian sector will be critical as it offers a safety net during times of extreme vulnerability. In comparison with the overall investment needed to build resilience to climate chane and conflict, it will be a drop in the bucket.   Still, humanitarian actors with experience in conflict zones can help influence those who hold the bigger buckets in terms of funding and influence over aid strategy.   How money in these buckets will be spent could have a significant impact on strengthening the resilience of essential services and communities to conflict and climate shocks. Will water, power and sanitation systems be rebuilt in a more resilient manner? Or will they follow standard, centralized models that make sense in peacetime, but are extremely vulnerable during conflict (i.e. if one part of the system is damaged, the whole system goes down).   For Mawanda Shaban, policy and resilience advisor for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, one critical first step is to simply to put climate change on the agenda in places where people are talking about conflict and vice versa. To date, the two issues are not fully linked in regional and global security, environment and disaster risk reduction platforms.   http://www.icrc.org/en/what-we-do/climate-change-conflict http://www.rcrcmagazine.org/2018/11/climate-of-war/ http://www.climatecentre.org/   Feb. 2019   Prepare now for accelerating climate threats, military officials warn. (Reuters, agencies )   Militaries must prepare now to deal with more frequent disasters, new conflicts and other risks as accelerating climate change brings greater threats, military and defence officials said.   "The threats are real. We already see them. And the threats will grow as the temperature rises," warned James Clayden, of the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, speaking at a conference on climate change and security at The Hague this week.   About a thousand Dutch troops, for instance, were called out for a month to provide humanitarian help and security when powerful Hurricane Irma slammed into Sint Maarten in 2017.   As hurricane disasters become more frequent and devastating, as warming oceans spur larger storms, the pressures on military support and resources will grow, Clayden said.   Jane Neilson, a senior policy analyst for the New Zealand Ministry of Defence, said her country's military forces regularly turn out to help South Pacific island neighbours hit by cyclones and other disasters.   But New Zealand officials worry that the country's relatively small forces could struggle to cope with bigger, harsher and more frequent disasters, or the threat of several crises happening at once.   "Globally, militaries are going to be more stretched with operations deriving from climate-induced impacts," she said, calling climate change "the single greatest threat to the security, livelihoods and well-being of people of the Pacific".   For many nations, threats at home are also growing. The Hague sits 3 metres (10 feet) below sea level, protected by a system of dikes and pumping stations, said retired General Tom Middendorp, a former Dutch defence chief.   Dutch forces already spend about 25 percent of their efforts supporting civil authorities, including by protecting the anti-flood systems, Middendorp said.   But if sea level rises significantly - by a metre or more by the turn of the century, under some scenarios - "imagine the impact it could have. We need to be ready for that," he told reporters.   "It's crucial in any country that the civil responders and military sit together and do risk analysis, see how they will cope in an emergency and translate that into standing arrangements," the general said.   In the United States, such preparations have been difficult, despite worsening floods, wildfires and storms, because President Donald Trump's administration has been reluctant to accept climate change as a risk, military officials said.   In fact, the White House is readying a presidential panel that would question U.S. military and intelligence reports showing human-driven climate change poses risks to national security, according to a document seen by Reuters this week.   But retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, who sits on the advisory board of the U.S.-based Center for Climate and Security, said climate threats are clear.   That includes preparing bases for expected sea level rise and providing better flooding protections. "We are being impacted by it and we can't deny it," she said, pointing to bases on the country's eastern and Gulf coasts already hard hit by floods and storms.   Middendorp said it's key for countries to understand that it will not be only poorer and more vulnerable nations hard hit by climate change.   "It will affect all countries with a coastline, all islands. Countries that up until now have been very peaceful will now be in harm's way," the general warned. He urged politicians to put aside political divides to tackle the increasingly evident risks.   "Climate change was seen as a left-wing issue and security was a right-wing, hard-liner issue. We were completely different worlds, but we've learned to appreciate each other," he said. Now, looking at both issues together is "of essential importance to everyone, regardless of your political background. We should de-politicize this," he urged.   Climate change threatens to drive violence and conflict as it brings worsening food and water shortages, more migration and other pressures, Middendorp said.   Clayden, of the Dutch defence ministry, pointed to Egypt, which he said will face losses of land to sea level rise and growing water security threats in an already fragile political climate.   Middendorp said he saw similar risks in a range of places, particularly Africa and the Middle East "where big rivers are drying out, the population is increasing, demand is piling up and we can't supply them with water and food," he said.   http://www.planetarysecurityinitiative.org/publications http://www.passblue.com/2019/05/07/climate-change-and-risk-of-conflict-the-links-grow-clearer/ http://www.sipri.org/research/peace-and-development/climate-change-and-risk http://www.sipri.org/research/peace-and-development/climate-change-and-risk/climate-change-and-security http://bit.ly/2XhPtDf http://bit.ly/2Ik8qxh Visit the related web page
	People with disabilities at higher risk in conflicts by International Disability Alliance, agencies   'You can and should do more, to include people with disabilities, a young Syrian disability advocate tells UN Security Council.   The Council was told that people with disabilities 'can't wait any longer' for more of a say in how their needs are recognised in its work.   The passionate appeal from 20-year-old wheelchair-bound Syrian refugee, Nujeen Mustafa, who briefed the Council on the acute vulnerabilities of people with disabilities in conflict and disaster situations, describing how once war began in her home city of Aleppo, she lived with the intense fear that she would be responsible for her own family dying in an airstrike.   'Every day, buildings in our neighbourhood were bombed, leaving people trapped beneath the ruins. Every day, I feared that I could be the reason my family was one or two seconds late. My brother called us the walking dead', she said to the hushed chamber.   Even fleeing the country, she had to be carried out of the country by her siblings, as she had no wheelchair at the time.   'The structure of supports that people with disabilities rely on, is broken down during conflict, leaving us at higher risk of violence and with more difficulties in getting assistance - especially for women', said the cerebral palsy sufferer.   She said she had three key insights to deliver. Firstly, the crisis in Syria has a 'disproportionately high impact' on people like her. Secondly, she said that people with disabilities, like women and girls, seem to be an afterthought. Finally, she noted that people with disabilities should always be treated as 'a resource, not a burden'.   'Count us, because we count too', said Ms. Mustafa, urging better data collection on how they cope in conflict. 'This should not be just another meeting where we make grand statements and then move on...You can and should do more, to ensure that people with disabilities, are included in all aspects of your work, we can't wait any longer', she told Council members.   Briefing members on the latest humanitarian situation across Syria, deputy UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller, said that over eight years, civilians had endured a 'litany of horrors' with those in the northeast and northwest, living in fear of yet another humanitarian catastrophe unfolding. More than eight in 10 people in Syria live below the poverty line and nearly 12 million Syrians depend on assistance.   Apr. 2019   Disability Rights Activist urges stronger, Inclusive Humanitarian Action by UN Security Council   The Syrian disability rights activist Nujeen Mustafa is to brief the United Nations Security Council on April 24, 2019, on the situation for people with disabilities in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. It will be the Security Council's first formal consideration of the rights of people with disabilities who are caught up in armed conflict.   The Security Council should urgently act to improve the protection of people with disabilities in armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said.   'The UN Security Council has a duty to protect all civilians in armed conflict, including people with disabilities', said Shantha Rau Barriga, disability rights director at Human Rights Watch.   'Nujeen Mustafa's briefing to the Security Council should prompt council members, the UN leadership, and all UN member states to ensure that their humanitarian commitment to 'Leave no one behind' is not just empty rhetoric'.   The Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year, has been characterized by widespread and serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict, including indiscriminate attacks, the use of prohibited weapons, and restrictions on humanitarian aid. Nearly six million people have fled the hostilities, often taking arduous and life-threatening journeys to reach safety.   People with disabilities are among the most at-risk in humanitarian emergencies. As shelling, airstrikes, or raids threaten their lives, people with disabilities may not be able to run for safety.   Those with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities (mental health conditions) may not understand danger. In the chaos of rushed evacuations, they also risk being separated from family members, or losing assistive devices, such as wheelchairs or hearing aids.   The situation is further complicated by countries refusal to accept more refugees or facilitate their ability to flee. People with disabilities have been disproportionately harmed by these violations and restrictions on the ability to seek refuge in other countries.   People with disabilities often struggle to access humanitarian aid, particularly in places like Syria, where aid providers have been attacked and where the government and anti-government armed groups have unlawfully restricted aid deliveries and the movement of civilians.   The humanitarian response in Syria and neighboring countries should include disability-inclusive protection programming and access for people with disabilities to basic services, including shelter, sanitation, health, psychosocial support, and education. Resources need to be dedicated toward evacuating civilians with disabilities from areas of hostilities.   The Security Council and member states should also ensure that neighboring and host countries facilitate the ability of civilians most at risk to escape violence, and dismantle policies that create additional risk for people with disabilities who attempt to flee.   The council should also ensure that UN data collection, monitoring, and reporting on all conflicts includes the specific situation of people with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said. Otherwise, their needs and equal rights will continue to be overlooked.   The International Disability Alliance, a network of 14 global and regional organizations of persons with disabilities working to advance the rights of persons with disabilities with governments and the UN system, emphasized the need to consult people with disabilities about their situation.   'The Security Council briefing is an important step in recognizing the unique and disproportionate impact of conflict on persons with disabilities', said Vladimir Cuk, executive director of the International Disability Alliance.   'Close consultation with and active involvement of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in humanitarian response is critical to address their situation on the ground'.   # People with disabilities, when compared to the general population, face higher risks in conflict situations and natural disasters. Research shows that the mortality rate among persons with disabilities tends to be up to four times higher than among the general population.   Moreover, for every person who dies during a disaster, it is estimated that three people sustain an injury, many causing long-term disabilities.   To compound matters, persons with disabilities are disproportionately more likely to be left behind in emergency responses and to fail to benefit from humanitarian services due to a range of barriers.   A recent study has confirmed that three-quarters of persons with disabilities do not have adequate access to basic assistance, such as water, shelter or food, in a crisis situation.   Half of the persons with disabilities surveyed also reported no access to disability-specific services, such as rehabilitation or assistive devices.   People with disabilities are a unique resource of knowledge and experience, who are too often overlooked in policies and actions to address their challenges and to build more resilient societies and communities.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/24/un-landmark-security-council-disability-rights-briefing http://www.geneva-academy.ch/news/detail/227-our-new-publication-addresses-the-devastating-impact-of-conflict-on-persons-with-disabilities http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/ http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/iasc-task-team-inclusion-persons-disabilities-humanitarian-action http://hi.org/en/international-advocacy-publications http://humanitariandisabilitycharter.org/ http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/whs.html http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/31/30 Visit the related web page
	View more stories