Humanitarian need is increasing. Crises are becoming more complex through the interactions between climate change, disasters, and conflicts. Not only are humanitarian crises on the rise, but the nature of crises is changing, largely due to climate change-driven extremes such as floods, droughts and typhoons. Over 90 percent of disasters are believed to be related to climate.

The future promises no respite. As climate change converges with other pressures—rapid population growth, widening inequality, un-planned urbanisation, changes in water and food availability, and political instability—the coming decades will see these pressures transmute into more frequent, intense, and protracted humanitarian crises.

More than 50 percent of people affected by disasters between 2005 and 2009 lived in fragile and conflict-affected areas and this figure is consistently rising. People living in countries in conflict are disproportionately vulnerable to climate risk. On the one hand, conflicts impact the effectiveness and access to the institutions, markets, and livelihoods people rely on to adapt to climate impacts. At the same time, climate shocks—like droughts or flooding—can have major consequences for communities struggling to cope with an armed conflict, further impoverishing them, leading to greater food insecurity and health problems, and forcing many to move for their survival. Working to strengthen the resilience of these communities and their institutions to climate and conflict risk is therefore critical. As the nature of risk has changed, so too should risk management and response mechanisms. This calls for a shift to ensure institutions are better able to address linked climate and fragility risks before they spiral into a crisis. Read the full post following the link above