Climate change is exacerbating conflicts in the Middle East and yet very little is being done to address it.

Over the past few weeks, an unusually wet rainy season has caused destructive floods across Sudan. Tens of thousands of people displaced by the Sudanese civil war have been affected and tens of thousands more were displaced by the floodwaters sweeping their homes away. This has added to the suffering of the Sudanese people who have faced severe shortages of food, medicines, shelter and other basics since the start of conflict in April 2023.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, high temperatures and the lack of access to fresh water and sanitation have made life miserable for the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by war. The hot weather has also facilitated the spread of infectious disease.

These serious developments in Sudan and Gaza make clear how extreme weather related to climate change can exacerbate already severe humanitarian crises caused by conflicts. And these are not the only places where war meets climate change to produce humanitarian disasters.

At the end of 2023, the United Nations estimated that 117.3 million people were displaced worldwide, with 68.3 million displaced internally. The main cause of displacement is conflict, but climate-change-related disasters, such as storms, floods, droughts and wildfires, also left some 20.3 million people homeless last year.

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