Ecological threat report 2021: understanding ecological threats, resilience and peace

Countries hit by ecological damage and conflict are trapped in a vicious cycle where one problem reinforces the other. And climate change is expected to make things worse. Ecological threats will lead to widespread conflict and mass migration unless significant efforts are made to limit the damage, a global think-tank report found. It comes ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, where world leaders are hoping to agree on concrete measures to tackle climate change. For its second Ecological Threat Report, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) assessed 178 independent states and territories to find those most prone to ecological-threat-related conflict. It looked at food risk, water risk, rapid population growth, temperature anomalies and natural disasters, and combined this data with national measures of socioeconomic resilience — such as well-functioning governments, strong business environments and acceptance of other people's rights among others — to produce the 2021 Ecological Threat Report.