Letter from Kenneth Cloke

Global climate is inherently unpredictable and subject to continuous environmentally induced changes. These changes can produce disastrous consequences for the earth’s peoples. The potential consequences are so severe that it makes sense for us to take steps that can mitigate their potential impact. Even those who question the human causes of climate change can agree with these statements.
We can also agree that climate changes are already causing increased conflicts, due to increasing competition for scarce resources, famine, displacements, water shortages, loss of land and the rapid melting of glaciers and ice masses.
These conflicts extend to the negotiation and acceptance of numerous solutions currently being proposed and implemented, which will delay by years, if not decades, their impact on the climate.

At Mediators Beyond Borders, we are witnessing an increased level of environmentally induced conflicts. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) states, in an article by Marshall B. Burke, Edward Miguel, Shankar Satyanathd, John A. Dykemae, and David B. Lobell http://www.pnas.org/, we find strong historical linkages between civil war and temperature in Africa, with warmer years leading to significant increases in the likelihood of war. When combined with climate model projections of future temperature trends, this historical response to temperature suggests a roughly 54% increase in armed conflict incidence by 2030, or an additional 393,000 battle deaths.

This is unfortunately only one of many examples of conflict related to climate change.
We desperately require immediate solutions -- not only to climate problems -- but to the ways we resolve the conflicts that are caused and aggravated by them; conflicts that reduce our ability to reach and implement agreements designed to alleviate the problem.

Our experience demonstrates that mediation is a powerful and effective way of addressing and impacting conflicts generated by Climate Change. For this reason, Mediators Beyond Borders is urging delegates to include mediation in the language of the Climate Change treaty and in the process of negotiations that lead to it. We know from years of professional experience that mediation can add significant value to the process of these negotiations.
Mediators Beyond Borders is the only Mediation or Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) NGO granted Observer Status at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, and our proposal to include mediation has been endorsed by over 40 ADR organizations.

Mediators Beyond Borders is working globally in many areas of conflict. For example, in Liberia, rehabilitating, reintegrating, and restoring the lives of Liberia’s former child soldiers: in Israel, – leveraging expertise and experience to offer guidance and empower local Muslim, Jewish and Christian Israelis in developing their mediation capacities; and in many other countries as well.

Kenneth Cloke

President, Mediators Beyond Borders