Blogs & Opinions

How Critical Technology Minerals Are Fuelling Conflict in DR Congo

Apr 7, 2023 | George Wachira

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a leading global source of critical “technology” minerals. Cobalt is a key component in rechargeable batteries used in…

The IPCC’S Missing Military Emissions

Apr 3, 2023 | Ellie Kinney

On March 20th, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest climate change research synthesis report. IPCC Chair Prof. Hoesung Lee’s message was…

Israeli-Arab Cooperation on Agriculture, Water, and Food Security Starts with Building on Existing Innovations

Mar 31, 2023 | Daniel B. Shapiro

The N7 Conference on Agriculture, Water, and Food Security—which I helped organize—convened in Abu Dhabi on March 14-16 with participants from each of the N7 countries:…

Africa: Who Needs A Seat at the Climate Crisis Table? #AfricaClimateHope

Mar 30, 2023 | Melody Chironda

Africa is increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, with the most vulnerable populations being hit the hardest, resulting in food insecurity, displacement of populations,…

Environment Can Support the Peace Agenda

Mar 30, 2023 | Shabir Ahmad

In 2016 Global Witness reported that an average of four people is killed per week defending their land and their natural resources from commercial development.

The…

Water, Oil and Iraq’s Climate Future

Mar 29, 2023 | Zeinab Shuker

For 40 years, the Iraqi state has lurched from crisis to crisis as wars and domestic conflicts have devastated the country’s infrastructure and institutions. 

Over the…

Risk-Informed Water Governance, a Critical Tool to Avert Hunger and Conflict

Mar 27, 2023 | Emma Whitaker

To build resilience to water insecurity among vulnerable communities in Eastern Africa and beyond, research from the adelphi-WFP Climate Adaptation Learning Facility has identified the…

How Pangani Villagers Push for Gender and Climate Justice

Mar 26, 2023 | Ramadhani Ismail

Globally, women and children remain the biggest sufferers when it comes to climate change. The numbers double and triple in second and third world countries,…

EU's New Critical Raw Materials Act Could Be a Recipe for Conflict

Mar 24, 2023 | Larisa Stanciu, Lotte Hoex

Last week, the European Commission unveiled the Critical Raw Materials Act to reduce its dependence on third countries for key raw materials deemed indispensable for the green…

USAID’s Revised Water and Conflict Toolkit

Mar 22, 2023 | Ekta Patel and Erika Weinthal

USAID’s recent revision of its Water and Conflict Toolkit provides guidance on how water practitioners can incorporate conflict-sensitivity into water programming to improve the effectiveness of development…

Tracking Conflict and Cooperation over the World’s International Freshwater Resources

Mar 20, 2023 | Alexandra Caplan, Melissa McCracken, Susanne Schmeier, Zoe Rosenblum, and Aaron Wolf

Waters that cross international political borders can drive the countries that share them to conflict—or encourage cooperation between them. Indeed, since the 1940s, overall trends…

Blame Governments, Not the Environment: How Political Failures Worsen the Effects of Climate Change in West Africa

Mar 17, 2023 | Georgetown Security Studies Review

With seven coups since 2020, West Africa is drawing global attention as a hotspot for conflict and a critical locus of discourse on climate security.…

Armed Conflicts Spread Contaminated Water and Disease: Here’s How to Better Protect Civilians

Mar 17, 2023 | Mark Zeitoun and Michael Talhami

Public health engineers, often working for humanitarian organizations all over the globe, observe a pattern as routine as it is toxic: Explosions impair electricity services,…

5 Facts About Gender Equality and Climate Change

Mar 16, 2023 | GABRIELA CARBÓ ZACK

Girls and women do not experience climate change in the same ways as boys and men. The reason? Historical and structural gender inequalities — which…

Gender Data Can Reinvigorate the SDGs

Mar 15, 2023 | Papaalioune B. Seck and Krista J. Baptista

In his February 2023 remarks to the General Assembly during the Consultation on the Summit of the Future, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged Member States to commit…

Before the Next Shock, the World Needs a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Food Insecurity

Mar 14, 2023 | Adam Gallagher and Arif Husain

In recent years, the world has seen a host of interconnected challenges, with a crisis in one part of the world setting off epiphenomenal emergencies…

IWD23 Protecting Women Environmental Defenders in Conflict

Mar 8, 2023 | Peixuan Xie

Environmental defenders, or environmental human rights defenders, are individuals and groups who strive to protect and promote human rights relating to the environment, by protecting…

Women Are Necessary for Ukraine’s Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction

Mar 8, 2023 | Jess Keller

Ukrainian women and civil society organizations (CSOs) are on the frontlines of the war advancing peace and security. Women have taken on new roles and…

The Impact of Climate Change on Women and What Investors Can Do

Mar 7, 2023 | Morgan Stanley

Climate-related issues such as water scarcity, natural disasters and access to electricity have a disproportionate effect on at-risk female populations. Here’s what investors can do. Climate…

Gender Bonds: A Far-Reaching Solution Towards Empowerment and Climate Resilience

Mar 7, 2023 | Shireen Muhiudeen

In 1908-15,000 women marched through New York City, USA, demanding for shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

In 1911 – International Women’s Day was observed…

Women are Neglected in Peace Building. That Needs to Stop.

Mar 7, 2023 | Noraida Endut

There should be more women at the negotiation table to achieve gender equality and inclusiveness in peace processes.

War is dangerous. But it is even more…

Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and the Matter of River Nile Water

Mar 5, 2023 | Tirusew Asefa

Every roadblock in the tripartite negotiation between Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sudan leads to one issue: Nile water use allocation. As it stands, both Egypt…

How Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Threatening Climate Security

Mar 2, 2023 | Oli Brown

The war is an existential threat for Ukraine, but its impacts go well beyond the immediate devastation that it’s causing, particularly with regard to the…

How Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Threatening Climate Security

Mar 2, 2023 | Oli Brown

The geopolitical consequences of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine are coming into focus as the invasion enters its second year. The war is an existential…

Separate or Relational and Truly Rational? A Few Notes on Gender, Nature, and Modernity’s Patriarchal Heritage

Mar 1, 2023 | Jan-Olav Henriksen

Everything that lives is constituted by relationships with everything else. Accordingly, it is of profound importance if we understand ourselves as conditioned by, dependent on,…

Reflecting on the First Climate and Security Practitioners Dialogue

Feb 28, 2023 | Ginevra Cucinotta and Marie Herman

Recent years have seen a growing body of evidence regarding the adverse impact of climate change on peace and security, notably through diminishing livelihoods, compounding…

Water and Conflict: Updates from the Russia-Ukraine War

Feb 28, 2023 | Angus Soderberg

The first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also a reminder of the long-term challenges faced by that embattled country, including one of the…

Who Is Conservation? Removing Barriers for Women Working in the Environmental Field Will Only Make Conservation as a Whole More Effective.

Feb 24, 2023 | Robyn James

More women are studying and working in conservation than ever before. Robyn James, TNC’s director of gender and equity in the Asia-Pacific Region, examines how institutional…

One Year of War in Ukraine: The View from Resource-Rich Developing Countries

Feb 23, 2023 | Suneeta Kaimal, Ana Carolina González Espinosa, Susannah Fitzgerald, Antonio Hill, and Amir Shafaie

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has uniquely affected developing countries rich in oil, gas and minerals. Translating resource wealth into economic and energy pathways that benefit…

Why Environmental Groups Must Oppose War

Feb 23, 2023 | We Advocate Thorough Environmental Review

The US government has been involved with fighting or funding wars for much of the past 80 years, so the question for us, as Americans,…