Delina Publishes New Paper on Extreme Weather and Social Conflict in the Philippines

Laurence Delina, a post-doctoral associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently co-authored a paper on the nexus of extreme weather events and social conflict in the Philippines for the Journal of Peacebuilding & Development.

The paper, co-authored by Rufa Cagoco-Guiam, a retired professor of at Mindanao State University in the Philippines, explores how extreme weather events like typhoons, flooding, and drought can lead to conflicts after the collapse of social and physical infrastructure. The authors considered two case studies of extreme weather events in the Philippines: a super-typhoon in the Visayas islands and a prolonged drought in Mindanao island. Using these case studies, they illustrated how extreme weather events can lead to, or exacerbate, development challenges like lack of reliable infrastructure, rapidly increasing urbanization, and weak governance systems in the Philippines.

At the Pardee Center, Delina leads a research project called The Future of Energy Systems in Developing Countries, which seeks to understand the options and trade-offs for achieving a secure and sustainable energy future in a select number of developing countries. His most recent book is titled Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition(s) in Developing Countries: The challenges of climate change and sustainable development (Routledge 2017).