The Lake Chad
Basin constitutes one of Africa’s most complex transboundary socio-ecological
spaces. Shared principally by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, and involving
the Central African Republic and Libya within the wider basin framework, it is
characterised by intense ecological, economic, political and security
interdependence. The variability of water resources, environmental degradation,
demographic pressure, population mobility and protracted insecurity have
transformed the governance of natural resources into an increasingly important
geopolitical question. Yet climate change does not operate as an autonomous
driver of conflict. Its political significance emerges through its interaction
with unequal access to resources, institutional capacities, and state policies,
patterns of mobility and security practices. This reflection examines how
climate dynamics are reshaping geopolitical relations in the Lake Chad Basin
and assesses the extent to which riparian policies and regional institutions
are developing effective forms of climate diplomacy. Drawing on a qualitative
and comparative analysis of institutional documents and policy reports, the
paper combines hydropolitics, political ecology and securitisation theory. It
argues that the basin is witnessing a gradual institutionalisation of climate
diplomacy, particularly through the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the Water
Charter and the Strategic Action Programme 2023–2037. Nevertheless, regional
cooperation remains constrained by competing sovereign interests, unequal
institutional capacities, the securitisation of environmental challenges and
competition for international climate finance. Climate diplomacy in the basin
therefore remains situated between cooperation and geopolitical competition.
Its future effectiveness will depend on the capacity of riparian states and
regional institutions to move from fragmented national adaptation policies
towards a genuinely integrated approach centred on human security, territorial
resilience and hydropolitical cooperation.
Keywords: Geopolitics; Climate diplomacy; Hydropolitics; Political ecology; Lake Chad Basin; Climate security; Riparian states.
