Conflict in West Asia, migration linked to climate change: Study

NEW DELHI: The intensification of armed conflict leading to a massive refugee crisis in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings between 2011 and 2015 is linked to climate change, a new study has said.

According to the authors of Climate, Conflict and Forced Migration, published in Elsevier’s Global Environmental Change, it is possibly the first study to investigate the link between climate change, conflict and migration with the help of statistical data.

The study is based on data about asylum-seeking applications for 157 countries between 2006 and 2015, and statistics about drought and conflict.

It concludes that climate change may have indirectly led to conflict and forced migration in West Asia, especially in 2011-12 when several countries were undergoing political uprisings.

The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy uprisings that rocked Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt and several other countries in the Arab region.

The study cites the ongoing conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, as an example.

The Syria crisis has drawn curiosity of climate and political scientists on whether climatic conditions can contribute to political unrest and civil war.

The study establishes the link with statistical evidence. “Recent studies of the Syrian uprising have shown that growing water scarcity and frequent droughts, coupled with poor water management, led to multi-year crop failures, economic deterioration and consequently mass migration of rural families to urban areas,” the study says.