The Green Economy and Land Conflict

Many studies on the nexus between global climate change and conflict have focused on how the physical and socioeconomic consequences of the former result in political instability, armed conflict, and violence. Research is also underway to explore the potential of climate mitigation and adaptation in contributing to peacebuilding. International and national governments are now designing and implementing unified solutions to simultaneously address climate change issues. These solutions are also being integrated in the green economy concept, where the objective is for economies to be low-carbon, resource efficient, and socially inclusive. There are growing concerns, however, that even climate change solutions or green economy projects (or those that claim to be) are not effectively assuaging conflict in affected areas. In fact, some of these solutions have created new and exacerbated old conflicts. In this essay, the argument is that green economy projects can be associated with increasing conflict and violence in the rural areas of the Philippines and that there is a need for further research on this matter. Adapted from the source document.