CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN CONFLICT - A CENTER FOR CIVILIANS IN CONFLICT POSITION PAPER

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN CONFLICT A CENTER FOR CIVILIANS IN CONFLICT POSITION PAPER Dan Mahanty and Stefan Bakumenko1 This paper provides CIVIC’s perspective on the relationship between climate change and the protection of civilians in armed conflict. [...] What matters to the interest of threats are different due protecting civilians is understanding whether and how vulnerabilities and threats are different due to the impact to the impact of climate of climate change, and how the agenda for addressing change, and how the them through policy, practice, and maintaining and building local capacities and resiliencies should change. [...] agenda for addressing them through policy, practice, and A growing body of evidence, to include the experience and direct observations of CIVIC staff globally, now maintaining and building local shows that climate-related impacts can affect the extent capacities and resiliencies or character of the protection risks faced by civilians and communities, and place stress on the mechanisms should chang. [...] Communities that have developed protection mechanisms through years of conflict face a new mixture of gradual and sudden climatic pressures that undermine the networks they spent years building.7 3 While this paper does not explore the effects of conflict on the natural environment, the authors commend to the reader the work of the ICRC and PAX on the impact of conflict on the natural environment. [...] Implications of Climate Change for the Protection of Civilians: Anticipate, prevent, and protect: The ability to forecast the severity and location of climate- related impacts (for example using the Notre Dame’s GAIN Index) provides an opportunity to identify links with protection risks and protection gaps, especially in fragile states and states with notable security governance deficits.22 Meanwh.