Climate change is fueling extremism, raising tempers along with temperatures: “When it comes to the climate crisis, a new research report on the risks of climate extremism paints an ugly portrait of two countries in Africa and two countries in Asia that are increasingly at odds with each other in a fight for power and authority in the region. The findings include growing support for extremist groups and the decline of moderate voices that stood in opposition to them.
But the research also suggests that the rise of climate-fuelled extremism may be in a slow and gradual phase, rather than the tipping point some fear. The report, released today by the Africa Centre for Theology and Politics and the World Politics and Globalization Programme at the University of Oxford, and the Center for Global Development in Washington, is the first major study to look at climate-fuelled extremism in Africa and Asia, and the first study to evaluate the effects of climate change on the prevalence of extremist groups in both regions, which has been a challenge for researchers and policymakers alike.
Climate-fuelled extremism is a more contemporary phenomenon, but it’s no less concerning. When it comes to the climate crisis, a new research report on the risks of climate extremism paints an ugly portrait of two countries in Africa and two countries in Asia that are increasingly at odds with each other in a fight for power and authority in the region. The findings include growing support for extremist groups and the decline of moderate voices that stood in opposition to them. In the short term, the impacts of climate-fuelled extremism on international security are considerable: for example, the climate change-induced migration driven by extremist groups in Africa is now estimated to cost the international economy as much as US$120 billion a year in lost trade and remittances, according to the report.
In the longer term, the report argues, the effects of climate-linked extremism are even more consequential, and could have a devastating impact on long-lasting relations between