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EXPERT COMMENT

Multilateral climate funds should consider launching a joint initiative to strengthen their approaches in fragile and conflict-affected states.

The number of armed conflicts in the world has risen markedly over the last decade resulting in large-scale human suffering. Violent conflict is a major driver of humanitarian funding needs and, by the end of this decade, up to two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor are expected to live in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is aggravating fragility and conflict challenges globally as soaring food and energy prices hit countries already grappling with instability, unemployment and poverty as well as the health and economic repercussions of COVID-19.

Climate change – a ‘threat multiplier’ – is also getting worse. At 1.1 degrees of average warming, every region in the world is experiencing ‘substantial damages and increasing irreversible losses’, as underscored in the IPCC’s 2022 report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, described as an ‘atlas of human suffering’ by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.