Please note that this is an on-going project.
Project Description
Climate change exacerbates rates and impacts of violence, especially for marginalised populations. Climate violence is an emerging concept that has been used to describe the interaction of these two global crises, yet there is no unifying definition of this term available in academic literature to date. The aim of this project was to systematically map conceptualisations of the term climate violence across disciplines in peer-reviewed publications, to provide an interdisciplinary definition for future use. A scoping review was rigorously undertaken for this purpose. Through applying inductive analysis, themes were identified as common features of definitions and descriptions of the term climate violence. A unifying definition was developed from these findings, and a preliminary conceptual model of climate violence. Aligned with emerging research in this space, the project proposed climate violence as a hypernym for the various forms of harm related to the now intentional act of ongoing anthropogenic climate change.
Project Personnel and Beneficiaries
The project involved a multidisciplinary, cross-institutional research team that included international partners. The project provides benefits across diverse fields of research, fostering interdisciplinary insights and shared understandings of complex global problems. The project aims to provide a unifying conceptualisation of climate violence to more effectively inform policy and practice, to benefit those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and violence.
Outcomes to Date
The outcome of this project has been an important knowledge contribution to inform action on climate violence. This has included the development of a unified definition of climate violence, encompassing the core characteristics elucidated through the scoping review of literature, and development of a preliminary conceptual model of climate violence. These learnings will be shared with international audiences via an online forum in 2025 and leveraged for the next stages of this work that aim to further develop and apply the climate violence model, aiming to directly benefit those most impacted by these crises.
Project Significance
As a scoping review, this project is an initial stage of work by the Disrupting Violence Beacon at Griffith University to understand and address climate violence in collaboration with international partners The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. The project contributes to achieving multiple sustainable development goals, particularly SGD 13 ‘Take Urgent Action to combat climate change and its impacts’, SDG 10 ‘Reduce inequality within and among countries’, SDG 3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’ and SDG 5 ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. The review helps to increase awareness of climate violence, the myriads of detrimental multi-scale impacts and begin to bring disciplines together towards a unified framing of this critical issue. A shared vocabulary and understanding of climate change and violence can help to provide a more consistent understanding, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and more accurately captures the violent and urgent nature of climate change. This is of critical importance to inform research, policy, and practice towards addressing climate violence globally.