Calm amid climate change
The world’s next climate summit, which starts mid-November, will take a new twist. It aims to find both solutions for and adaptations to global warming by focusing on peacemaking. Climate change has fueled many conflicts but, in some places, has also led to peace efforts to lessen its violent effects. Of the 15 countries most vulnerable to climate change, 13 are struggling with violent conflicts.
To make the point about the summit’s theme, host country Azerbaijan is considering whether to ask countries with conflicts to suspend hostilities during the 11-day conference. Similar requests have been made during the Olympics.
One country in particular – in fact, the world’s youngest – is already trying to foster reconciliation between warring groups after record floods, heat waves, and droughts over recent years. South Sudan, which became independent from Sudan in 2011, has been in a civil conflict between two ethnic groups, with international mediators trying to resolve differences. But in addition, the adverse weather has driven clashes between farmers and nomadic cattle herders forced to migrate into each other’s lands and compete for resources. Some three-quarters of the African nation’s 11 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. In March, schools were closed for two weeks because of extreme heat.
At the local level, many governors and civil society groups are bringing feuding clans to the table to negotiate an end to cattle theft and other abuses. Many of these peace initiatives are sponsored by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. “Despite the difficult situation, people should strive for peaceful coexistence and unity,” said Paul Ebikwo, acting head of the organization’s field office in Malakal.
Some peace efforts are creative. U.N. peacekeepers from India, for example, bring warring clans together in the Greater Upper Nile by inviting them to bring in their cattle for checkups by Indian veterinarians. “When we care for animals, we care for each other, which is a powerful catalyst for peace,” said Lt. Col. Manoj Yadav, the deputy commander of the Indian peacekeeping battalion.
The peacekeepers’ motto: “Even in the darkest of times, the simplest acts of compassion and kindness can have a profound impact.” For a global climate summit with a theme of peace, that’s also a good motto.
