Conflict and Cooperation in the Management of
Climate Change
Andrew Clayton – DFID, January 2014
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
DFID & NWO
• DFID policy commitments on climate change and working in
fragile and conflict-affected states.
• Demand for more evidence on the inter-relationships between
climate change and conflict.
• NWO existing research programme on Conflict and Cooperation
over Natural Resources in Developing Countries (CoCooN) with
support from Dutch Foreign Ministry
• CCMCC designed by DFID and NWO as new research
programme, building on CoCooN, but looking more specifically
at climate change and climate policies.
AIM & OBJECTIVES
• Aim: to contribute to sustainable development, poverty
reduction and the realisation of the MDGs
Objective: to strengthen the evidence on:
• the impact of climate change and climate change policies on
conflict or cooperation in developing countries and in
particular
• the impact of policies and financing mechanisms to address
the problem of climate change on cooperation and conflict
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. What are the dynamics of cooperation and/or conflict around
managing the impact of climate change and climate change
policies?
• How do policies and interventions trigger conflict or
enhance cooperative behaviour?
• Are there “tipping points” from cooperation into conflict
and violence, or can conflict and cooperation overlap and
interact in complex ways?
GUIDING QUESTIONS
2. What can we do to effectively build the resilience of poor
communities?
…in reply to the impacts of increasing climate variability and
climate change and in ways that support (incentivise)
cooperation rather than violent conflict around the
management of scarce natural resources?
GUIDING QUESTIONS
3. What does this mean for CC policies and programmes?
• How can policies and programmes incentivise collaboration?
• Specifically, how can climate change policies and financing
mechanisms be more conflict sensitive and act as drivers of
peace, not conflict?
• What works and what does not?
THREE PERSPECTIVES
 Knowledge, research and innovation
 Development relevance
 Capacity development
THREE PERSPECTIVES
 Knowledge, research and innovation:
Providing robust evidence via high quality research on the
dynamics of cooperation and/or conflict over natural
resources around the impacts climate change and climate
change policies
THREE PERSPECTIVES
 Development:
Providing society with tools and perspectives for conflict
sensitive climate change policy development and financing
mechanisms that effectively contribute to the resilience of
poor communities in developing countries
THREE PERSPECTIVES
 Capacity development:
Building capacity of organisations, groups and individuals to
investigate, to provide advice on and to implement tools for
conflict sensitive climate change policy development and
financing mechanisms
CCMCC-Integrated projects
 Initiated and steered by consortia, composed by representatives of:
• Collaborators from research and non-research institutes
• From worldwide: North and South
 Facilities:
• Research – rigorous design & transdisciplinary approaches
• Learning, training & capacity development
• Communication & knowledge sharing
 Process approach:
• Demand - based
• Stakeholder involvement
• Feed-back stakeholders and take-up of new knowledge and insights
Himalayan climate conflicts
University of East Anglia
Wageningen
University
Conflict and cooperation
over REDD+ in Mexico,
Nepal and Vietnam
(CoCooR)
Mosaic: Climate change
mitigation policies, land
grabbing & conflict in
fragile states
Middlesex University
Community based Adaptive Learning
in management of Conflicts and
Natural Resources (CALCNR)
Institute of Social Studies
Utrecht University
Towards Inclusive and
Cooperative Climate Change
Interventions (TICCI)
Investing in Land
and Water
UNESCO-IHE
Peri-Urban
Water Security
in South Asia
Wageningen
University