From Climate Crisis to Lasting Peace: How Smart Climate Action Can Reduce Conflict Worldwide

UNDP’s From Crisis to Resilience shows that climate change is increasingly shaping conflict and stability, especially in fragile regions, but also offers a chance to build peace when responses are inclusive and conflict-sensitive. Drawing on case studies from across the world, the report finds that well-designed climate action can strengthen livelihoods, reduce tensions and support lasting peace rather than deepen insecurity.

Climate change is no longer just about rising temperatures or melting ice caps. In many parts of the world, it is becoming a driver of instability, deepening poverty, displacement and conflict. A new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), produced with the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Climate Security Mechanism, argues that climate action can either worsen these pressures or help societies move toward peace. The report, From Crisis to Resilience: Climate Solutions for Positive Peacebuilding, draws on real-world experiences from fragile and conflict-affected regions to show how climate solutions can also be peace solutions.

Climate Stress and Conflict Feed Each Other

The report starts from a simple but powerful idea: climate change acts as a “threat multiplier.” Droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas place stress on water, land and food systems. In places where institutions are weak and inequalities are deep, this stress can increase tensions between communities, fuel displacement and, in some cases, trigger violence. Conflict then makes climate adaptation harder by destroying infrastructure, disrupting livelihoods and diverting public resources. This creates a dangerous cycle in which climate shocks and insecurity reinforce each other, especially in fragile states.

When Climate Projects Help or Harm

Through ten case studies across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the report shows that climate projects are never socially neutral. In southern Iraq’s Mesopotamian marshlands, renewable energy systems and eco-tourism helped restore livelihoods damaged by decades of conflict and drought. But when benefits were unevenly shared, tensions quickly surfaced between neighbouring communities. The lesson was clear: even well-intentioned climate projects can increase conflict if they ignore local power dynamics. By contrast, when communities were actively involved in planning and benefit-sharing, the same projects strengthened trust and cooperation.

Clean Energy, Water and Women at the Centre

Some of the strongest examples come from places where climate action was designed to include the most vulnerable. In Jordan, solar power plants in refugee camps provided clean energy to both refugees and host communities, easing pressure on scarce resources while improving safety and livelihoods. In Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, women-led water management projects reduced conflicts over access to water while cutting risks of gender-based violence. Solar-powered water systems and women’s leadership did more than improve services, they helped rebuild social cohesion at the community level.

Data, Technology and Local Knowledge

The report also highlights how data and technology can support peace when combined with local ownership. In Ghana, detailed mapping of climate-related security risks helped policymakers understand where climate stress was most likely to trigger conflict, allowing them to plan rather than react after violence occurs. In Kenya’s drought-prone Tana River region, satellite data combined with information collected by farmers and pastoralists helped communities share water more fairly, reducing clashes. These examples show that technology works best when communities help generate and use the data themselves.

Climate Action as a Path to Peace

In post-conflict settings, climate solutions can even support reconciliation. In the Bangsamoro region of the Philippines, climate-resilient livelihoods for fisherfolk, women’s groups and former combatants strengthened food security while supporting a fragile peace process. In Colombia’s Amazon, conservation and sustainable livelihoods helped reintegrate ex-combatants, reduce deforestation and rebuild trust between communities and the state. Environmental protection became a means of healing social divisions left by decades of conflict.

One Message Stands Out

Across all regions, the report delivers a consistent message: climate action and peacebuilding must go hand in hand. Climate finance that ignores conflict risks can unintentionally deepen instability. But when climate projects are inclusive, conflict-sensitive and locally driven, they can reduce violence, strengthen livelihoods and build long-term resilience. As climate impacts intensify worldwide, the report argues that the real question for governments and donors is no longer whether climate action should support peace, but how quickly they can make it happen.