Environmental Peacebuilding Association

Blogs & Opinions

The ILC Draft Principles on the Protection of the Environment in Armed Conflict

Aug 4, 2022 | Stavros Pantazopoulos

After almost a decade working on the topic “Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts” (PERAC), the UN International Law Commission (ILC) adopted…

Closing the Gender Gap to Build Forward Better

Aug 3, 2022

Drinkable, usable water is very rare in cyclone-affected areas. One has to walk long distances to reach just a little bit of potted water. Otherwise…

Green Peace: How Israel and Its Neighbors Are Fighting to Save the Environment Together

Aug 1, 2022 | Chaim Lax

In Israel, the government has taken the danger of global warming seriously, with the Defense Ministry developing contingency plans for dealing with future heat waves and former…

Land Reform and Peacebuilding in Côte d’Ivoire: Strange Bedfellows?

Jul 31, 2022 | Matthew Mitchell

Though often seen as critical for promoting economic development, land reform is a deeply political process. Considering the symbolic and material significance of land to…

Women Entrepreneurs in Africa Face More Climate Risks Than Their Male Peers

Jul 28, 2022 | Kate Gannon

The world’s climate is changing. All of us will ultimately be affected by climatic shifts – but some will be hit harder than others.

On the African…

Climate Security: A New Kind of Enemy

Jul 28, 2022 | Wes Martin

Climate change poses a drastic rebalancing of geopolitics, ushering in an era of “climate security”. The world’s militaries will face new challenges as these conditions precipitate. The…

Sustainable Recovery? First Sustain Interest in Ukraine’s Environment

Jul 28, 2022 | Doug Weir

The environmental dimensions of all armed conflicts are becoming ever more visible. There are a number of reasons for this: improved access to earth observation…

The Congo, Its Minerals and Its Tribalism

Jul 27, 2022 | Jonathan Power

When the United Nations pulled its troops out of the Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, in June 1964, Secretary General U Thant…

We Can’t Fight Climate Change Without Fighting for Gender Equity

Jul 26, 2022 | Jamie L. Gloor, Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Corinne Post, and Winfried Ruigrok

As the climate crisis becomes increasingly urgent, organizations around the world have begun investing in a wide array of environmental sustainability initiatives. Some of these…

Beyond a “Threat Multiplier”: Exploring Links between Climate Change and Security

Jul 26, 2022 | Farah Hegazi, Elise Remling, Kyungmee Kim, and Simone Bunse

The idea implicit in the term “threat multiplier” is straightforward: climate change can exacerbate security threats. Yet this formulation puts the emphasis squarely on climate…

Why Climate Change Disproportionally Impacts Women

Jul 25, 2022 | Demetria Dickinson

A number of recent studies show that the negative effects of climate change fall disproportionately on women, caused by and compounding long-standing effects of sexism…

Ukraine’s Critical Minerals and Europe’s Energy Transition: A motivation for Russian Aggression?

Jul 21, 2022 | Andrei Covatariu

Europe’s long-term strategy to phase out fossil fuel use has endangered Russia’s main source of state revenue, forcing the Kremlin to focus on acquiring, one way or…

Water Diplomacy Can Learn from Realist Ideas

Jul 19, 2022 | Sumit Vij, Jeroen Warner, Mark Zeitoun, Christian Bréthaut

As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues and nations are returning to behaviors best explained by realism, we are wrestling with these trends’ longer-term implications on water…

Food May Be the Ultimate Weapon in the 21st Century

Jul 18, 2022 | Hal Brands

President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly rewriting its National Security Strategy, which the White House is required to send to Congress annually, to account for the lessons…

New Legal Protections for the Environment in relation to Armed Conflict

Jul 16, 2022 | Karen Hulme and Elizabeth B. Hessami

Nature and conservation are inevitably harmed during armed conflict. The recent adoption by the International Law Commission (a legal body within the United Nations) of…

What’s in a Name? Making the Case for the Sahel Conflict as “Eco-Violence”

Jul 15, 2022 | Olumba Ezenwa

The Sahel region of Africa is a semi-arid, arc-shaped landmass that stretches 3,860 kilometres from Senegal across portions of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and even…

How Climate Change Could Drive an Increase in Gender-Based Violence

Jul 14, 2022 | Meghie Rodrigues

As extreme weather events occur more frequently — something that climate scientists say is inevitable — so, too, will violence towards women and people from…

As Climate Change Strains Somalia's Path to Peace, Communities Hold the Key

Jul 14, 2022 | International Organization for Migration

Massive livestock deaths due to drought have been reported across Somalia this year. Herds of cattle – often the only source of income and food…

In World Convulsed by Climate-Driven Conflict, Are Peace Parks an Answer?

Jul 14, 2022 | Saul Elbein

The Himalayan high peaks serve as a jagged wall dividing nuclear-armed neighbors — a physical barrier rising in places to more than 8,800 meters (29,000…

Tackling Scarcity and Building Security: A Response to IUU Fishing

Jul 14, 2022 | Johan Bergenas

Healthy coastal ecosystems support peaceful and well-functioning societies. They feed billions of people, support hundreds of millions of jobs, and provide security to communities at…

Women Should Be Leading Conservation Efforts in Africa

Jul 13, 2022 | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Women make up the backbone of society. Nowhere is this truer than in rural Africa, where the so-called “lesser sex” takes on the bulk of…

Heeding Calls from Environmentalists, South Sudan President Suspends Dredging of Sudd Wetland

Jul 13, 2022 | Yale Environment 360

In May, Egypt delivered equipment to dredge 20 miles of waterways in the north of the Sudd, sparking backlash from environmentalists, who said the project…

Climate Change Exacerbates Violence Against Women and Girls

Jul 12, 2022

It is estimated that 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women, according to UN Environment.

When women are displaced, they are at…

Kerala’s Escalating Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Jul 11, 2022 | Aswin V.N.

Incidents of human-wildlife conflict are on the rise in Kerala and it is back in focus with the killing of man by a wild elephant…

Convergence of Conflicts, COVID and Climate Crises, Jeopardize Global Goals

Jul 7, 2022 | United Nations

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 reveals that the convergence of increased fighting, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, and the long-term climate crisis, could push an additional 75 to…

How Green Can Ukraine’s Recovery Really Be?

Jul 7, 2022 | Michelle Langrand

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, there have been over 580 disruptions in industrial and infrastructure facilities, according to figures by the Geneva-based Zoi…

We Built an Algorithm to Predict How Climate Change Will Affect Future Conflict in the Horn of Africa: Here’s What We Found

Jul 6, 2022 | Jannis Hoch, Niko Wanders, and Sophie de Bruin

The Horn of Africa, on the eastern coast of the continent, is currently being battered by an intense and sustained drought thanks to which around 20 million people…