Three steps to including conflict considerations in the design of climate change adaptation projects

The aim of the research paper is to provide guidance on integrating conflict considerations into the design of climate change adaptation projects. The paper highlights the potential for climate change to exacerbate existing conflicts and create new ones, and the need to ensure that climate change adaptation efforts do not inadvertently contribute to conflict.

This policy brief recommends a three-step approach to facilitating the consideration of conflict risks in the design of climate change adaptation projects that involves analysing the existing climate–conflict dynamics, assessing a project’s potential influence on them and, finally, integrating the insights gained from the first two steps into the project’s design. The steps are: (a) analysing climate–conflict dynamics at the project level; (b) assessing how the adaptation project influences the climate–conflict dynamics; and (c) integrating the insights from the climate–conflict analysis into the adaptation project’s design.