Climate Change, Conflict and Sustainable Development: Issues and Perspectives in the Horn of Africa, 1986 - 2013

Abstract

Despite being a global issue and the implications of adversely affecting human life, the debate on climate change has not commanded the kind of global support and legal and structural mechanisms necessary to reverse the changes that years of environmental degradation have had on the climate and the society. Climate change has been allied to be a consequence of increased global warming of which emission of green house gases have played a huge part in. These emissions, scientists have claimed, have been as a result of human activities including industrialization which has increased the carbon component in the air. The model that developed countries applied in the course of their development which focused on industrialization and mass production is the same that the developing countries have been striving towards which essentially means that the world is on a fast, progressive road towards its doom unless an alternative is applied.Alternative development paths affect future climate change as does climate change on the prospects for alternative development paths. The two roads arrive at one impasse; conflict which is the result of the two processes working independent of each other. This study investigated and interrogated the measures that have been put in place towards climate change adaptation in the Horn of Africa sub region vis a vis, the steps towards sustainable development and evaluated them for their feasibility in tandem with each other and within the Horn of Africa context. This was done by exploring a largely qualitative research design with elements of quantitative research design. The study was able to establish and highlight the need to integrate Climate Change into Development and Security policies given the continent’s susceptibility to climate change effects as well as the role that development plays in climate change and climate change on security. More critical, it was able to highlight the role and need to have multi-sectoral approaches and the inclusion of multi stakeholders in climate change adaptation and mitigation given the implications of the same to the broader socio, political, economic and security affairs of the sub-region.