Climate Change Discourse in Peacebuilding
Publisher: Symposium: Climate Change and Peace
Author(s): Joseph B. Bazirake
Date: 2013
Topics: Climate Change, Economic Recovery, Public Health, Renewable Resources
The concerns over climate change have gained more impetus in recent times, with an increase in international commentary on the need to halt its global effects. Notwithstanding the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 that fell short of its strategic scope, there is dire need for successor interventions that would espouse more widely encompassing climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches.
This essay points toward a prognosis that there is a high likelihood for climate change to affect diplomatic ties among nations. There is a real potential for counter accusations among states, owing to loss and devastation linked to climate change, which could become a precursor for conflict. Moreover, climate change appendages are so secluded that when used as validation for warfare, they could hastily pit blocks of nations against perceived inducers of climate change. Such a situation could play out as a vicious cycle for climate change, as its sophistication would call for equally hazardous responses, which in themselves would contravene the principles espoused in international environmental treaties.