Blogs & Opinions

Take the Oil: How Hitler Could Have Led Nazi Germany to Victory in World War II?

May 1, 2019 | John F. Murphy, Jr

With Lt. Gen. Erwin Rommel driving on Egypt and the British pushed out of Greece, a sudden pro-Nazi coup d’état in Iraq lay rich oil…

Gender Transition to Energy for All: from Evidence to Inclusive Policies

Apr 30, 2019

Following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, policy- and decision makers, governments, multilateral organisations, private companies, and civil society organisations, at both…

A Warmer Arctic Presents Challenges and Opportunities

Apr 30, 2019 | Kelly McFarland

As Arctic ice melts, we can physically see glaciers retreating. But what we can’t yet see is the exact effect climate change will have on the…

Mongolian Herder Families Are Being Split Between Countryside and Town

Apr 30, 2019 | B Munkhtuvshin

One snowy winter’s day I went to a small winter camp of just two households 140 km from the nearest soum (district) centre. A dog…

Breaking from Tradition, Indigenous Women Lead Fight for Land Rights in Brazil

Apr 29, 2019 | Anthony Boadle

Brazil’s indigenous women have been overturning tradition to step into the spotlight and lead an international push to defend their tribal land rights, which are…

Marcia Andrade Braga: A 'Stellar Example' of Why More Women Are Needed in UN Peacekeeping

Apr 29, 2019

Training gender advisors and focal points in the Central African Republic (CAR) has earned a Brazilian United Nations peacekeeper a special gender advocate award, it…

Experts Meet on Gender and Social Inclusion in Community Clean Energy

Apr 26, 2019

Experts gathered in Dhaka today for the start of a 2-day conference co-organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to discuss community-based clean energy in…

What Can We Learn about the Environment in Conflict Areas without Going There Physically?

Apr 26, 2019 | Lina Eklund

Access to areas affected by armed conflicts is often limited, posing problems for research into environmental change. In this blog, Dr Lina Eklund provides an…

Articulating, Strengthening and Building Solidarity - Women's Resistance to Mining

Apr 25, 2019 | Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action

 “Our grandparents told them to provide good roads, (electrical) power and hospitals. 
But they didn’t meet any of these expectations.
Here there is no power. 
Development… we don’t…

Global Assessment Highlights Growing Environmental Risks to Human Security

Apr 25, 2019 | Doug Weir

The Sixth edition of UN Environment’s Global Environment Outlook – GEO6 – was published to coincide with the fourth UN Environment Assembly in March. As…

Top Funders and NGOs Think Empowering Women Farmers Can Reduce Hunger. Are They Right?

Apr 24, 2019 | Michelle Sieff

In 2017, about 11 percent of the world’s population—around 821 million—was undernourished, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This data confirms a recent…

Left Behind- the Mongolian Herders Living at Home With Mum

Apr 23, 2019 | Narangerel Yansanjav

“I am one of the woman-headed households in this soum. I have been a herder for many years. For me life is still good, because…

To Mitigate Climate-Fragility Risks, Build Preventative Capacity in Fragile States

Apr 23, 2019 | Truett Sparkman

States facing major climate hazards, such as flooding, drought, and sea level rise, will be forced to contend with the cost of humanitarian and adaptation…

Blockchain Is Great, but It Can't Solve Everything. Take Conflict Minerals.

Apr 23, 2019 | Fritz Brugger

Blockchain technology can help trace a product as it moves through a supply chain, but it cannot create trust where it’s often most needed. 

Bloody Gold in Zamfara: Threat to Stability or Development Opportunity?

Apr 22, 2019 | Donald Inwalomhe

Although Zamfara gold should provide development opportunities but renewed gold interest in Zamfara represents a real threat to stability in a still vulnerable conflict in…

Was the Fate of Sudan's Ruler Sealed When Oil Prices Fell?

Apr 21, 2019 | Robin Mills

When Sudan shut down the pipeline from South Sudan in 2013, the new state was plunged into economic crisis within two years. Now, one of the…

Is It Times to Consider a More Federalized Iraq?

Apr 19, 2019 | Paul Iddon

Could granting more autonomy to the oil-rich region of Basra help its residents improve their livelihood? asks Paul Iddon.

Science Diplomacy and Environmental Peacebuilding: Overcoming Political Boundaries by Leveraging Science and Protecting the Environment in Cyprus

Apr 18, 2019 | Carla Isobel Elliff, Sunitha Anup, and Dhanasree Jayaram

This webinar series on science diplomacy and environmental peacebuilding seeks to explore the role of science diplomacy in environmental peacebuilding. The first webinar focused on Cyprus, which is…

Opinion: What More Than 150 Members of ISIS Taught Us about Water Security

Apr 17, 2019 | Anne Speckhard and Ardian Shajkovci

Former ISIS members have described in detail how water plays into terrorism and terrorist strategy. The authors have conducted interviews with more than 150 ISIS…

Titling Priorities

Apr 16, 2019

Maritza Losada moved to Puerto Guadalupe, Meta five years ago when her husband found a job with a large biomass energy company that grows sugar cane. She…

The Essential Triad: Water, Gender and Integrity

Apr 15, 2019 | Anga Timilsina

Water is critical for socio-economic development, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems, and human survival. Although 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking…

Why Women Led the Uprising in Sudan

Apr 12, 2019 | Nasredeen Abdulbari

The protests that led to the ouster of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, have been dominated by women. Day after day on the streets of Khartoum,…

Craft and the Council: Will Kelly Knight Craft End Climate Action at the UN Security Council?

Apr 11, 2019 | Oli Brown

In late February, Donald Trump announced Kelly Knight Craft, a 57-year-old Kentucky native, as his pick to succeed Nikki Haley as US Ambassador to the United…

Afghanistan's Transformation into a Narco-State

Apr 11, 2019 | Gareth Rice

As though Afghanistan’s problems couldn’t get any worse, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s most recent Afghanistan opium survey (released in November last year) was a…

Four Climate Change Factors That Might Contribute to Existing or Future Conflicts

Apr 10, 2019 | Loic Tchinda

According to the SIDA Report (2017), climate change might not have a clear and linear relationship with violent conflict but under certain circumstances, climate-related change can…

Pig Pens Power a Solution to Climate Change in Vietnam

Apr 9, 2019

When Trin Gim first started her biogas digester business, she raised many eyebrows. In the little district of Ung Hoa, located south of Viet Nam’s…

Gender Equality? Add Water

Apr 9, 2019 | Sonia Lowman

Imagine having to wait all day to defecate in the dark, just to get the tiniest semblance of privacy—and then getting raped because you went…

For Planet and Country: National Security's Climate Moment

Apr 9, 2019 | Jon Powers and Kevin Johnson

It is no overstatement that the greatest threat facing America’s national security and the world at large is climate change. Denials of science and fossil…

The Case for Planetary Stewardship

Apr 9, 2019 | Georg Kell

We know with scientific certainty that the impact of climate change will soon force governments to take bolder steps, both in terms of reducing emissions…

China’s Assertive Maritime Policy Is Older Than Xi

Apr 9, 2019 | Andrew Chubb

The toughening of China’s policies in the South and East China Seas is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. But…