Blogs & Opinions

Environmentalism for Sovereignty’s Sake

Dec 12, 2022 | Peter Schwartzstein

Egypt’s Gebel Elba National Park is, by all accounts, a spectacular place. But it better be to justify the fuss it takes to visit. First…

It's Complicated: Lessons for GBV Prevention in WASH Programs

Dec 9, 2022 | Olivia R. Tisa, Sarajane Renfroe, and Lorraine R. Kudayah-D'Almeida

Many women and girls, persons with disabilities, and ethnic and religious minorities experience challenges in accessing safe and clean water and sanitation, sometimes placing them…

Climate Change Worsens Gender-Based Violence: Here’s How the WPS Agenda Can Help

Dec 8, 2022 | Jenaina Irani

Climate change is a growing threat to progress, peace, security, and human rights. The negative impacts of climate change often have gendered impacts and are…

States Adopt New Legal Framework on the Environmental Impact of War

Dec 8, 2022 | Conflict and Environment Observatory

The new legal principles on the Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts (PERAC) have been developed by the UN’s International Law Commission,…

Intelligence Agency’s 1981 Assessment of Climate-Change Threat Was Remarkably Accurate

Dec 8, 2022 | William Leben

Australia’s national intelligence agency has released a report that ‘examines the implications of the increasing accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result…

CARE’s COP27 Response: One Step Forward, but Many More Needed

Dec 6, 2022 | Marlene Achoki, CARE

We are disappointed to say that while COP27 made some progress recognizing the importance of gender justice, attendees ultimately took no collective action. Two weeks of…

Why We Need More Women at COPs

Dec 6, 2022 | Hellen Shikanda

Two women steered the historic negotiations that led to a funding mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for Loss and…

Climate Change and Ecological Security

Dec 5, 2022 | Matt McDonald

As climate change is increasingly recognized as a security issue, a parallel understanding is also developing. Traditional categories and approaches may not be the optimal…

The Age of Intersecting Crises?

Dec 5, 2022 | Tobias Ide

While climate change is arguably the most important challenge of our time, headlines were frequently dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of the…

Indigenous Women in STEM Are in a Unique Position to Stop Climate Change

Dec 5, 2022 | Leticia Tituana

In Kichwa, an indigenous language spoken in parts of Ecuador, Pachamama (“Mother Earth”) is a unique word that represents the harmonious bond between nature and the indigenous…

Media and Climate Security: Mutual Miscomprehension?

Dec 1, 2022 | Peter Schwartzstein

There’s a scene near the climax of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express when Hercule Poirot starts to plot out the possible murderers. There’s…

Four Takeaways from the COP27 Climate Conference

Nov 29, 2022 | Tegan Blaine

The progress at COP27 — as well as the lack of it on some fronts — begs the question of how the global community can…

Environmental Peacebuilding Must Pay More Attention to Armed Groups

Nov 29, 2022 | Judith Verweijen

Environmental peacebuilding is a rapidly grow field of research and practice. It examines how addressing conflicts over natural resources and improving resource governance can serve…

Green Jobs for Women Can Combat the Climate Crisis and Boost Equality

Nov 29, 2022 | Franziska Deinninger and Ana Gren

Delegates returned home from COP27 with long to-do lists and a formidable challenge: how to accelerate development that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels and creates…

Fishing for Equity and Inclusion: Women’s Socioeconomic Factors in Kenyan Fisheries

Nov 29, 2022 | Margaret Gatonye

Seeing Loreta sort and dry her Omena sardines at the shores of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya, one may dismiss this small, middle-aged woman as…

The Case for Integrating Sustaining Peace into an Expanded Climate, Peace and Security Concept

Nov 23, 2022 | Cedric de Coning and Hafsa M. Maalim

One of the key themes that emerged from the just concluded COP27 is the recognition that climate change does not only exacerbate the causes and…

One Earth, One Security Space: From the 1972 Stockholm Conference to Stockholm+50 and Beyond

Nov 22, 2022 | David Michel

The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment marked a watershed in world environmental politics. Gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, the international community collectively recognized…

How to Avoid a New Cold War over Critical Minerals

Nov 22, 2022 | Cullen Hendrix

Will the 21st century be the century of the green great game? In the early 20th century, then-First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill oversaw…

Water Shortages Cause Conflicts across Africa

Nov 22, 2022 | Robin Scher

Water is a finite resource on our planet. We can only rely on what we have, which translates to about 2.5% of drinkable fresh water.…

Women Underrepresented at COP27 Summit

Nov 18, 2022 | Caroline Kapp

Advocates have expressed concern that women are underrepresented at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference—or COP27—in Egypt this month. In 2011, countries pledged to increase…

Natural resources and the prospects for gender-just sustainable peace

Nov 17, 2022 | Carol Cohn and Claire Duncanson

To build peace that is gender-just and sustainable, we need to start with two questions: What are the conditions of people’s lives at the end…

Tailoring Inclusive Solutions to Climate Finance: The Role of Individual and Collective Inclusion

Nov 17, 2022 | Manuel Bueno and Stephanie Landers Silva

Climate finance can and should be more inclusive of marginalized and underserved groups, including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, low-income people, and people in remote areas.…

Environmental Peacebuilding Is Resolving Conflicts Caused by Climate Change

Nov 16, 2022 | Vartika

Environmental cooperation is increasingly being utilized to resolve local problems induced by global warming.  Environmental cooperation is increasingly being utilized to resolve local problems induced by global warming. Environmental…

Helping Asia-Pacific Women to Overcome Climate Disasters

Nov 14, 2022 | Sarah Knibbs, Dechen Tsering and Annamaria Oltorp

The disastrous floods in Pakistan have proven, yet again, that our climate crisis disproportionately hurts women. Of the 33 million people affected, nearly 70 per…

USAID's Best Practices for Advancing Gender-Responsive Climate Work

Nov 14, 2022 | M. Mena

Gender inequality exacerbates the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls, and it is a barrier to achieving climate change goals. However, we…

How Climate Discussions Connect to Security

Nov 14, 2022 | Homeland Security Today

Negotiations at COP27 will occur against a highly charged geopolitical landscape, given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and heightened competition between the United States and…

At COP27, 41 Grassroots Women’s Organizations Launch New Global South Alliance for Indigenous and Local Women and Girls

Nov 11, 2022 | Rights and Resources

SHARM-EL-SHEIKH (November 11, 2022) — On November 11 at CoP27, 41 grassroots women’s organizations from Asia, Africa, and Latin America launched a new advocacy network…

The Law of Treaties in Wartime: The Case of the Black Sea Grain Initiative

Nov 10, 2022 | Gregor Novak and Helmut Aust

The Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) was in the spotlight recently following a nail-biting attempt by Russia to suspend its participation in one of UN Secretary-General Guterres’…

COP27: An Explainer for Peacebuilders

Nov 10, 2022 | Harriet Mackaill-Hill

COP is short for ‘Conference of the Parties’ and there are all kinds of COPs for various international agreements. But the term COP has come…

The Gender Imbalance at COP27

Nov 8, 2022 | Akanksha Khullar

Women have historically been underrepresented at the UN’s global conference on climate change, and this year’s COP 27 congregation in Egypt, was no exception. A…