Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between climate change and political instability in the MENA region. To this extent, 18 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries are analyzed covering the period 1985:01–2016:12 with monthly data. In econometric analysis, at first cross-sectional dependency analysis is applied, and existence of cross-sectional dependency among countries is found. Therefore, CADF-second generation panel unit root test applied, and finally, Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) panel causality test that consider the cross-sectional dependency are utilized. For empirical analysis, temperature and precipitation data representing climate change, political instability, and conflict data are employed. According to the findings, there is a causal relationship from climate change to political instability in 16 countries and to conflict in 15 countries. In addition to this, at least one causal relationship is determined from climate change to political instability or conflict in all MENA countries. Therefore, empirical results support the assumption that climate change acts as a threat multiplier in MENA countries since it triggers, accelerates, and deepens the current instabilities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adoho F, Wodon Q (2014) Perceptions of climate change, weather shocks, and impacts on households in the MENA region
Alesina A, Özler S, Roubini N, Swagel P (1996) Political instability and economic growth. J Econ Growth 1(2):189–211
Alper AE, Oransay G (2015) Cari Açık ve Finansal Gelişmişlik İlişkisinin Panel Nedensellik Analizi Ekseninde Değerlendirilmesi. Uluslararası Ekonomi ve Yenilik Dergisi 1(2):73–85
Aribigbola A, Folami OM, Folami AO (2013) Climate change and insecurity are like a chain reaction. Peace Rev 25(4):518–525
Arslan Ü (2011) Siyasi İstikrarsizlik ve Ekonomik Performans: Türkiye Örneği. Ege Akademik Bakış 11(1):73–80
Banks A (2005) Cross National Time Series Data Archieve, 1815–2003. (Fourth Edition) Binghampton, NY
Barrett CB (2013) Food security and sociopolitical stability. OUP Oxford
Barro RB (1991) Economic growth in a cross-section of countries. Q J Econ 106(2):437
Beck T, Clarke G, Groff A, Keefer P, Walsh P (2001) New tools in comperative political economy: the database of political institutionals. World Bank Econ Rev 15(1):165–176
Biello D (2011) Are high food prices fueling revolution in Egypt?. Scientific American/Observations. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/are-high-food-prices-fueling-revolution-in-egypt/. Accessed 28 Mar 2019
Burke MB, Miguel E, Satyanath S, Dykema JA, Lobell DB (2009) Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106(49):20670–20674
Carmignani F (2003) Political instability, uncertainty and economics. J Econ Surv 17(1):44
Chawdhury J (2016) Political instability a major obstacle to economic growth in Bangladesh. Centria University of Applied Sciences, Atlanta
Cukierman A, Edwards S, Tabellini G (1992) Seignorage and political instability. Am Econ Rev 82(3):545
De Châtel F (2014) The role of drought and climate change in the Syrian uprising: untangling the triggers of the revolution. Middle East Stud 50(4):521–535
Dumitrescu EI, Hurlin C (2012) Testing for granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels. Econ Model 29(4):1450–1460
Dupont A (2008) The strategic implications of climate change. Survival 50(3):29–54
Durkova P, Gromilove A, Kiss B, Plaku M (2012) Climate refugees in the 21 st century. Regional Academy on the United Nations. 1-26. https://acuns.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Climate-Refugees-1.pdf. Accessed 12 10 2018
Fahad S, Wang J (2019) Climate change, vulnerability, and its impacts in rural Pakistan: a review. Environ Sci Pollut Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06878-1
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations) (2012) Syrian Arab Republic Joint Rapid Food Security Needs Assessment (JRFSNA). FAO Rep.. [Available online at http://www.fao.org/giews/english/otherpub/JRFSNA_Syrian2012.pdf]. Accessed 27 June 2019
Femia F, Werrell C (2013) Syria: Climate change, drought, and social unrest. The Center for Climate and Security. [Available online at http://climateandsecurity.org/2012/02/29/syria-climate-change-drought-and-social-unrest/. Accessed 14 Mar 2019
Forsyth T, Schomerus M (2013) Climate change and conflict: a systematic evidence review. The Justice and Security Research Programme. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56352/1/JSRP_Paper8_Climate_change_and_conflict_Forsyth_Schomerus_2013.pdf (Erişim Tarihi: 01.10.2018)
Fredriksson P, Svensson J (2003) Political instability, corruption and policy formation: the case of environmental policy. J Public Econ 87(7–8):1383–1405
Gani A (2012) The relationship between good governance and carbon dioxide emissions: evidence from developing economies. J Econ Dev 37(1):77
Gleditsch NP, Wallensteen P, Eriksson M, Sollenberg M, Strand H (2002) Armed conflict 1946-2001: a new data set. J Peace Res 39(5):615–637
Gleick PH (2014) Water, drought, climate change, and conflict in Syria. Weather Clim Soc 6(3):331–340
Gurgul H, Lach L (2012) Political ınstability and economic growth: evidence from two decades of transition in Cee. Munich Personal RePEc, MPRA. Paper no: 37792, archive online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37792/. Accessed 14 Oct 2019
Halkos GE, Tzeremes NG (2013) Carbon dioxide emissions and governance: a nonparametric analysis for the G-20. Energy Econ 40:110–111
Huntjens P, Nachbar K (2015) Climate change as a threat multiplier for human disaster and conflict: policy and governance recommendations for advancing climate security. The Hague Institute for Global Justice
Hurwitz L (1973) Contemporary approaches to political stability. Comp Polit 5(3):449–463
ICRG (International Country Risk Guide) (2016). ICRG Methodology. https://www.prsgroup.com/explore-our-products/international-country-risk-guide/. Accessed 08 04 2019
IPCC (Intergovermental Panel of Climate Change) (2014a) Climate change 2014: synthesis report. contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151
IPCC (2014b) Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part a: global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate. Cambridge University press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/. Accessed 03 10 2018
IPCC (2014c) Climate change 2014 mitigation of climate change working group III contribution to the fifth assesment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge press, 9. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg3/ipcc_wg3_ar5_full.pdf. Accessed 27 Apr 2018
Johnstone S, Mazo J (2011) Global warming and the Arab Spring. Survival 53(2):11–17
Keidel A (2005) The economic basis for social unrest in China. Third European-American Dialogue on China, Washington, DC, pp 26–27
Kelley CP, Mohtadi S, Cane MA, Seager R, Kushnir Y (2015) Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112(11):3241–3246
Link PM, Brücher T, Claussen M, Link JS, Scheffran J (2015) The Nexus of climate change, land use, and conflict: complex human–environment interactions in northern Africa. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 96(9):1561–1564
Maia R (2018) Climate change brews conflict. Climate Action Business Association. https://cabaus.org/2018/05/21/climate-change-brews-conflict/
Marshall M, Gurr TR, Jaggers K (2002) Polity IV data set. https://home.bi.no/a0110709/PolityIV_manual.pdf. Accessed 14 Aug 2018
Martens M (2017) Food and water security in the Middle East and North Africa. NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Mendelsohn R, Dinar A, Williams L (2006) The distributional impact of climate change on rich and poor countries. Environ Dev Econ 11(2):159–178
Menyah K, Nazlioglu S, Wolde-Rufael Y (2014) Financial development, trade openness and economic growth in African countries: new insights from a panel causality approach. Econ Model 37(C):386–394
Mhanna W (2013) Syria’s climate crisis. http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/12/syriandrought-and-politics.html. Accessed 22 Sep 2019
Pesaran MH (2007) A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence. J Appl Econ 22(2):265–312
PEW Research Center (2019) International migrants by country. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/interactives/international-migrants-by-country/
Price RA (2017) Climate change and stability in North Africa. K4D helpdesk report, 242. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton
Şanlısoy S, Kök R (2010) Politik İstikrarsızlık-Ekonomik Büyüme İlişkisi: Türkiye Örneği (1987–2006). Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi 25(1):101–125
Scheffran J, Brzoska M, Brauch HG, Link PM, Schilling J (2012) Climate change, human security and violent conflict: challenges for societal stability (Vol. 8). Springer Science & Business Media
Schmidhuber, J., & Tubiello, F. N. (2007). Global food security under climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(50), 19703-19708.
Sekrafi H, Sghaier A (2016) Examining the relationship between corruption, economic growth, environmental degradation, and energy consumption: a panel analysis in MENA region. J Knowl Econ 9(3):963–979
Selby J, Dahi OS, Fröhlich C, Hulme M (2017) Climate change and the Syrian civil war revisited. Polit Geogr 60(2017):232–244
Shetty S (2006) Water, food security and agricultural policy in the Middle East and North Africa region. World Bank
Smith D, Vivenkananda J (2007) A climate of conflict: the links between climate change, peace and war. International Alert, London
Sternberg T (2012) Chinese drought, bread and the Arab spring. Appl Geogr 34:519–524
The CNA Corporation (2007) National security and the threat of climate change. https://www.npr.org/documents/2007/apr/security_climate.pdf. Accessed 14 Oct 2018
Tol RSJ (2005) Emission abatement versus development as strategies to reduce vulnerability to climate change: an application of FUND. Environ Dev Econ 10:615–629
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) (2019) Nigeria emergancy. https://www.unhcr.org/nigeria-emergency.html. Accessed 06 08 2019
UNHCR (2015). Environment & Climate Change. Editors:Türk, V., Corliss, S., Riera, J., Lippman, B., Hansen, E., Gebre Egziabher, A., Franck, M., Dekrout, A.& Kuroiwa, Y. https://www.unhcr.org/540854f49.pdf. Accessed 02 09 2018
Verisk Maplecroft (2014) Climate change and environmental risk atlas 2015. Last Modified October, 29
Waha K, Krummenauer L, Adams S, Aich V, Baarsch F, Coumou D, Fader M, Hoff H, Jobbins G, Marcus R, Mengel M, Otto IM, Perrette M, Rocha M, Alexander R, Schleussner CF (2017) Climate change impacts in the Middle East and northern Africa (MENA) region and their implications for vulnerable population groups. Reg Environ Chang 17(6):1623–1638
World Bank (2014) Turn down the heat: confronting the new climate normal. Washington, DC: World Bank. Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/317301468242098870/Main-report. Accessed 10 OCT 2019
World Bank (2019) Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (% of GDP), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS. Accessed 17 Sep 2019
World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (2018) Data assessed and retrieved from: http://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org. Historical climate dataset: University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit; Harris, I.C.; Jones, P.D. (2017): CRU TS4.01: climatic research unit (CRU) time-series (TS) version 4.01 of high-resolution gridded data of month-by-month variation in climate (Jan. 1901- Dec. 2016). DOI: http://doi.org/10/gcmcz3 Access Date: 09.05.2019
World Economic Forum (2017). The Global Risks Report 2018 13th Edition. ISBN: 978–1–944835-15-6. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GRR18_Report.pdf. Accessed 09 10 2018
Zugravu N, Millock K, Duchene G (2008) The factors behind CO2 emission reduction in transition economies. Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Working Papers. Paper 217. https://services.bepress.com/feem/paper217/. Accessed 27 Nov 2018
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Muhammad Shahbaz
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This study was created by revising the Ph.D. thesis titled “The Relationship Between Climate Change and Political Instability: The Case of MENA Countries (1985:01–2016:12)” under the supervision of Prof.Dr. Ahmet AY.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sofuoğlu, E., Ay, A. The relationship between climate change and political instability: the case of MENA countries (1985:01–2016:12). Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 14033–14043 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07937-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07937-8