change is increasingly accepted as a ‘threat multiplier’.330 Conversely, it has been found that conflict militates against countries’ adaptive capacity to deal with the debilitating effects of climate change and environmental degradation, requiring a double pronged approach that embraces adaption and peacebuilding.331 A 2007, United Nations Environment Programme post conflict environmental assessment of Sudan found connections between the environmental risks and conflict in Darfur, emphasising the need for peacebuilding within environmental management.332 Climate change and environmental degradation by themselves do not necessarily cause conflict but can accelerate structural violence. This is more so where inadequate governance responses, structures and processes to adapt to climate change feed into or reinforce perceptions of exclusion or injustice at local levels.333 It has been posited that violence can erupt and persist when situations such as drought encounter adverse social and political conditions, that are predisposed towards fostering ‘more radical attitudes’ or ‘violent interventions against the government.’334 Countries that face any of these conditions and have not successfully built resilience to climate change stresses are at greater risk of triggering conflict.335 Climate change has been escalated in the UN Security Council to the level of national security, with scarcity of or competition for natural resources increasingly referred as a potential threat multiplier for human disaster and a driver of conflict.336 Violence can erupt and persist when situations such as drought encounter adverse social and political conditions. 337 Radicalism or violent extremism in the Lake Chad Basin by Boko is attributed to forces taking advantage of the adverse effects of climate change on the stability of the region. The Lake Chad Basin has shrunk more than 90 percent since the 1960s resulting in multi-layered crises that combine political, socio330 Climate Change & Environment: Fragility and Conflict , Nexus Brief, Nr. 5, July 2018 Urmilla B, Bronkhorst S. and Salsa S ‘Climate change and conflict: conflict-sensitive adaption in Africa. In: Urmilla B, Bronkhorst S. and Salsa S. (eds.): Conflict-sensitive adaptation in Africa. . (2014). Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag. 332 UNEP ‘Sudan Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment’ 2007 UN 333 Huntjens P, Nachbar K ‘Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier for Human Disaster and Conflict’ Hague Institute for Global Justice Working Paper 9 May 2015 334 Detges A ‘Climate and conflict: reviewing the statistical evidence’ Berlin: Adelphi, 2017 335 Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change ‘Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’ Working Group II Contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report WMO, UNEP, 2007 336 Huntjens P, Nachbar K ‘Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier for Human Disaster and Conflict’ Hague Institute for Global Justice Working Paper 9 May 2015 337 Detges A ‘Climate and conflict: reviewing the statistical evidence’ Berlin: Adelphi, 2017 331 105