Blogs & Opinions

War Escalates Environmental Problems in Ukraine

Mar 3, 2022 | Teresa Bergen

Some Russians are concerned about the environmental effects of the war, too. Oleg Anisimov, head of the Russian delegation at a closed-door U.N. climate conference, apologized for…

Blockchain for Critical Minerals

Mar 3, 2022 | Michael J. Walsh, Jr., Eugenia Wang, and Kathleen E. Wegrzyn

The United States relies heavily on imports to satisfy its demand for critical minerals, and importers rely heavily on China for critical and rare earth…

Explainer: Why Women Need to be at the Heart of Climate Action

Mar 1, 2022

Those who are most affected by climate change today–women, girls and marginalised communities–must be involved in the design and implementation of climate response actions to…

Hydropolitics in the Russian – Ukrainian Conflict

Mar 1, 2022 | Mehmet Altingoz and Saleem Ali

It’s telling that one of the first actions that Russian forces took in their invasion of Ukraine was to blow up a dam on the North Crimean…

The Compounding Crises of the Pandemic, Climate Change, and Ukraine

Mar 1, 2022 | Alexander Verbeek

As Eisenhower could have told you, if you continue to prioritize the urgent above the important, most of your essential tasks will ultimately end in…

A Shift to Clean Energy Would Halt Russia's Petro-Thuggery and More

Feb 28, 2022 | Jonathan Overpeck

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is putting 44 million innocent lives in danger and threatening the sovereignty of a democratically governed country.

Oil and gas prices were…

Dire UN Report Warns of Conflicts Worsened by Climate Change

Feb 28, 2022 | Ja'han Jones

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts assembled by the U.N. to represent 195 governments, said in its report Monday that “climate change has caused…

Ukraine Invasion: Rapid Overview of Environmental Issues

Feb 25, 2022 | Eoghan Darbyshire

Ukraine is a heavily industrialised country, with many mines, chemical processing plants and metallurgical works, risking a large technological catastrophe. Both the military build-up, and the short…

Climate Security Is Energy Security Is National Security

Feb 25, 2022 | James Murray

There can be no doubt that petrostates feel squeezed by the global agreements to decarbonise and the threat clean technologies pose to the revenue streams…

Bending Gender Norms: Women’s Engagement in Agriculture

Feb 11, 2022 | Manisha Shrestha

Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have studied and witnessed that women, particularly in South Asia, have strongly ingrained and culturally…

How Can Climate Finance Work Better for Fragile and Conflict-Affected Regions?

Feb 10, 2022 | Catherine Wong and Yue Cao

Climate change often hits the hardest and is felt most profoundly in fragile and conflict-affected settings, which suffer high vulnerability and low investments in coping…

Environmental Peacebuilding: Science Meets Constructive Resistance

Feb 8, 2022 | Sawssan Abou-Zahr

Four years prior to the October 17th 2019 Revolution, people in Lebanon took to the streets seeking sustainable solutions for the so-called garbage crisis. These…

Why Militaries Shouldn’t Be Exempt from EU Battery Laws

Feb 8, 2022 | Conflict and Environment Observatory

The EU Green Deal and 2050 carbon neutrality targets are set to drive forward a low-carbon economy reliant on battery-powered technology. Both the Green Deal…

Environmental Peacebuilding Is Essential and Complex – but It’s Also Exciting

Feb 4, 2022 | Carl Bruch

Environmental peacebuilding remains a young field but is rapidly evolving. There are still many complexities in the range of issues that it encompasses in dealing…

Why Women’s Leadership is Key to Climate Action

Feb 2, 2022 | Nina Jeffs

At the COP26 climate summit, the leaders of Estonia, Tanzania and Bangladesh were the first to sign the Glasgow Women’s Leadership statement, calling for countries to…

For National Security, Climate Finance Must Be Made 'Conflict-Proof'

Feb 2, 2022 | Elsa Barron and Erin Sikorsky

As the House takes up the America COMPETES Act of 2022, a comprehensive bill to promote innovation and economic competition with China, climate change is…

Why International Geneva’s ‘Human Dimension’ Bodes Well for Environmental Peacebuilding

Feb 2, 2022 | Annika Erickson-Pearson

It’s a compound problem: areas with dwindling natural resources, harsh climate change impacts and biodiversity loss also tend to be those experiencing violent conflict. But…

Climate Change Could Turn Iraq's Marshes Into Barren Wasteland

Feb 1, 2022 | Mina Aldroubi

Iraq’s marshes, home to the country's famed Marsh Arab culture and a haven for migratory birds, are under threat from climate change, water scarcity and increasing water salinity,…

International Geneva Turns Focus to Nature and Peace

Jan 31, 2022 | Michelle Langrand

Nature and peace will be in the spotlight this week in Geneva as experts from around the world gather online for the International Conference on…

Guatemala’s Western Highlands: Addressing Gendered Vulnerability to Climate Change

Jan 30, 2022 | Jessie Pinchoff and Angel del Valle

The Population Institute’s recent report, Invisible Threads: Addressing the root causes of migration from Guatemala by investing in women and girls, has brought attention to…

Paradise Imagined: Environmental Peace Education in Carceral Spaces

Jan 30, 2022 | Elsa Barron

Where does the material that makes up a tree come from? When asked that question, many of our students turned to the soil for answers,…

Turning Climate Adaptation Commitments into Reality in Peru

Jan 26, 2022

Peru was one of the first countries to set climate adaptation goals as part of its climate change commitments, known as Nationally Determined Contributions or…

Gender, Climate Change, and Security: Missing Links

Jan 26, 2022 | Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown

Gender issues, climate change, and security problems are interconnected in complex and powerful ways. Unfortunately, some of these connections have not received enough attention from…

Are Indian States Secured by Water Security?

Jan 24, 2022 | Jagdish Chandra Rout

H2O (two molecules of hydrogen and a single molecule of oxygen) is not merely the scientific nomenclature of the most precious liquid on our planet…

How to Steal Land the Size of a Small Country | Part VII: Coercing Justice

Jan 24, 2022 | Adriaan Alsema

The director of Colombia’s ranchers federation allegedly teamed up with designated terrorists to steal land and coerce the Supreme Court. Recent testimonies indicate that Fedegan…

Exploring Gender, Social Aspects of Climate Policies

Jan 20, 2022

With a focus on climate change and gender, the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) has partnered with the Gender Into Urban Climate Change Initiative (GUCCI), and…

How to Address Climate Change with Better Food Systems

Jan 18, 2022 | Eugene Willemsen

It comes as no surprise that climate change directly affects the future of security. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation clearly outlines the role that…

Climate Action and Security – Two Sides of the Same Coin

Jan 14, 2022

In November, the world came out of COP26 with a mixed bag of results. The 1.5 degrees target was kept alive, and 154 countries submitted revised…

Gender Day Gives Rise to the Forgotten Energy Providers in the Climate Conversation

Jan 13, 2022 | Philippe Benoit

The singular issue that emerged on Gender Day during during last year's COP26 was the need for disadvantaged women, who are the majority producers and users of biomass…

To Help Ensure Food and Economic Security in Afghanistan, Invest in the Skills of Young Women and Girls

Jan 12, 2022 | Nangyalai Attal

With the prevailing food security crisis in Afghanistan, the international community must invest in the significant potential of Afghan girls to increase their participation in…