Building Sustainable Peace: Transforming Environmental Peacebuilding in Times of Climate Change
Publisher: Lund University
Author(s): Christie Nicoson and Barbara Magalhaes Teixeira
Date: 2020
Topics: Climate Change, Economic Recovery, Governance
The Sustainable Development Goals outline a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. However, this is not only ambitious; there appear to be inherent contradictions to reconciling the economic, environmental, and social goals. Goal 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions relies on the promotion of “sustainable development” to achieve environmental and social goals. The idea of sustainable development is deeply connected to economic growth. While there are benefits to economic growth, like for example decreased risk of conflict, this approach is reactive rather than transformative. Therefore, there is a need to reimage sustainable development as a transformative process in society to fight not only social and economic inequalities, but also climate change vulnerabilities. We suggest that degrowth ideas open key opportunities for environmental peacebuilding, such that peacebuilding processes might foster more peaceful societies as well as help communities address climate change.