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Climate-Fragility Risk Brief: Afghanistan

Oli Brown (Chatham House)

For the past four decades, Afghanistan has suffered from the devastating impacts of constant armed conflict. Conflicts have increased Afghanistan’s already high vulnerability to climate change, the impacts of which may, in turn, help to create the conditions for continued violence. This risk brief from the Climate Security Expert Network outlines some of the ways in which climate change threatens long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan: Climate shocks and climate ‘headwinds’ could worsen poverty, weaken governance and contribute to instability.

While the Afghan Government has taken measures to address climate change both at the national and international levels, this risk brief also presents a number of entry points that would specifically address climate security concerns. For a quick overview of Afghanistan's climate-fragility risks, take a look at the two-pager factsheet.

Download the risk brief 

CSEN_Afghanistan_RiskBrief_2019

Download the factsheet

CSEN_Afghanistan_Factsheet_2019

 

Discover the Climate Security Expert Network

To contact the author, please email: secretariat@climate-security-expert-network.org.

Further resources: 

Podcast with author:

Hot days ahead: How climate is pushing Afghanistan’s multiple burdens to the brink

In this episode, we look at Afghanistan and discuss how climate impacts are pushing its multiple burdens to the brink and what the Afghan government and international community could and should do to address the security risks presented by climate change. Our guest is Oli Brown, Associate Fellow at Chatham House and author of the climate-fragility risk brief on Afghanistan.

 

Case study:

Poor water provision drives Taliban recruitment in Afghanistan

Political neglect, ideology and economic hardship drive recruitment for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. As rural communities depend heavily on water for their livelihoods, pressures on resources due to over extraction, deficient infrastructures, and mismanagement, but also to climate changes, are likely to contribute to the conditions that facilitate recruitment by the Taliban.

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