Anpassung an den Klimawandel im Zeichen von Konflikten und Krisen

The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) draw a dramatic picture of the regional impacts of climate change. Societies with only minor coping capacities will be most severely affected. To address the growing conflict potentials associated with a changing climate, the development and implementation of adaptation strategies has increasingly gained relevance. This article discusses the existing potentials of adaptation policies to improve a conflict preventive approach based on an assessment of initial national and international activities in this area. It turns out that an only technical understanding of adaptation to climate change is not sufficient to guide activities in conflict prone regions. Rather, the development of conflict sensitive adaptation strategies is required, based on comprehensive national capacity building efforts supported internationally and linked to regional processes of cooperation.