Climate Change and Conflict: Is the International Community Doing Enough?

Abstract

It has long been acknowledged that the negative consequences of climate change will contribute to the loss of many lives, and the wholesale detestation of many areas. Thus many conferences have been organized, frameworks drawn up, and even protocols enacted so as to halt and reverse this trend. Hence by utilizing a qualitative approach, this paper critically assesses the efficacy of the aforementioned measures. The methods as to how climate change may contribute to conflict and the regions that are susceptible to these are also expounded upon. It concludes that the international community’s response to the impact of climate change lacks bite, conflicts with World Trade Organization rules, and is myopic in that secondary measures such as the construction of state institutions which are necessary to mitigate the impacts of climate change are discouraged. Thus, in the short to medium term conflicts caused by floods, sea level increases, and droughts will drastically increase, unless state and non-governmental institutions are formed to assist people deal with the challenges that climate change poses.