Myanmar Faces Climate Challenges Amid Intensifying Conflict

Summary:

Myanmar’s Climate Exposure and Escalating Conflict
Myanmar faces severe climate vulnerabilities, including floods, cyclones, extreme heat, and landslides, particularly threatening its rural and coastal populations. Environmental degradation, like illegal logging, exacerbates these risks. Compounding the climate issues, Myanmar endures the world’s longest ongoing civil war, intensified by the 2021 military coup, which overturned a decade of political and economic liberalization efforts. The coup has escalated violence and disrupted progress in federal democracy, peacebuilding, and climate action policies.
The military’s violent suppression has galvanized pro-democracy groups and ethnic minorities into forming anti-junta alliances, including People’s Defense Forces supported by the National Unity Government. The conflict has dramatically worsened humanitarian conditions, with over 18 million people needing aid and millions displaced.
Climate change and conflict in Myanmar are mutually reinforcing, with environmental instability exacerbating social and political tensions. Local responses to climate issues, like turning to environmentally harmful livelihoods, further degrade natural defenses against climate disasters. Nationally, inadequate responses to climate events, like Cyclone Mocha, have aggravated conflict dynamics, especially in regions like Rakhine State, where militarized responses have backfired, increasing local grievances against the regime.
Regionally, climate-induced migration and economic instability threaten neighboring countries’ security. The article calls for coordinated efforts from local civil society and regional actors like ASEAN to build climate resilience and address the compounded challenges of climate change and armed conflict in Myanmar, emphasizing the need for strategic international engagement and support for local communities.