Blogs & Opinions

The World’s Militaries Aren’t Ready for Climate Change

Sep 22, 2022 | Erin Sikorsky

As the war in Ukraine continued this summer, with billions of dollars’ worth of military aid pouring into Kyiv from its allies and partners, governments…

Mining, Land Grabs, and More: When Decarbonization Conflicts with Human Rights

Sep 22, 2022 | Sarah Fecht

For almost any project or action, impacts are unavoidable. Not decarbonizing fast enough also has an impact: according to a study by Daniel Bressler, a PhD student…

Are ‘Water Wars’ Coming to Asia?

Sep 17, 2022 | Genevieve Donnellon-May

A recently published study by a team of scientists from the University of Texas in Austin, Penn State, and Tsinghua University in Nature climate change…

Forgotten Droughts: These Five Regions of the World Could Soon Face Conflict over Water

Sep 16, 2022 | Charlotte Elton

Millions of people in 'neglected' regions could soon face violent conflict over water, according to an early warning tool developed by the Water Peace and…

Three Territorial Disputes You May Not Have Heard of

Sep 12, 2022 | Daniel Hayward

Living in Thailand, and closely linked to efforts supporting individuals and groups in Myanmar handling the aftermath of the 2021 military coup, the author hears…

Pakistan Floods & Climate Security: Rethinking Comprehensive National Security

Sep 8, 2022 | Ameera Adil, Faraz Haider

Between 2010 to 2022, on average, there has been a major flood every other year in Pakistan, causing hundreds of casualties. From a human perspective, the losses are…

Climate Security at USAID: (Re)defining an Integrative Issue

Aug 30, 2022 | Daniel Abrahams and Allison Brown

Climate security is an essential conceptual framework to understand the global interplay of biophysical and socioeconomic forces that threaten our planet. Indeed, it is so…

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

Aug 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…

Climate, Peace and Security and the Need for a Coordinated Approach

Aug 29, 2022 | Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga

In the African continent, where both slow and fast onset climate events undermine economic and political stability, the linkage between climate change and conflict is…

Conflict, Climate Change and COVID Combine to Create a Breeding Ground for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Aug 26, 2022 | Helen Clark, Michelle Bachelet, and José M. Albares

Rape is being used in conflict as a deliberate military strategy, and is feared most by women and girls as soon as the shooting starts.

They…

Leveraging Hydropower for Peace

Aug 24, 2022 | Emilie Broek and Kyungmee Kim

Hydropower is the largest source of low-carbon electricity in the world today. And its benefits are needed more than ever.  Yet the heavy social and…

South Sudanese Women Are Going Beyond Gender Norms to Cope With Multiple Crises

Aug 23, 2022 | Marisa O. Ensor

The links between gender, mass violence, climate change, and human mobility are complex and interrelated. In South Sudan, where four in five people endure extreme…

How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine May Impact the Arctic

Aug 22, 2022 | Benjamin J. Sacks and Kristin Van Abel

Seven countries that ring the North Pole recently declared that they would suspend cooperation with Russia at the Arctic Council, which Russia currently chairs, in…

S.Res.669 – Starvation as a Weapon of War

Aug 22, 2022 | Borgen Magazine

Every day, Ukrainians fear another onslaught of bombs from Russia, but they also worry that their food supply could run out since the war brought…

Russia Is Guilty of Ecocide

Aug 16, 2022 | Michael Long and Michael Lynch

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it created not only a refugee crisis and social devastation, but also extensive environmental destruction. As scholars who have written about ecological…

‘Afghan Women’ Aren’t Who You Think They Are

Aug 16, 2022 | Lima Halima Ahmad

On May 7, the Taliban issued a statement making their version of the hijab mandatory for all women of Afghanistan, even though this full-body covering, sometimes called…

Can the Iron Curtain Be Green? Europe’s Nature Is Being Divided by Fences and Fortifications

Aug 12, 2022 | Oleksii Vasyliuk and Vadim Kiriliuk

This article discusses the current discourse on border barriers and related environmental issues. It explores the high-profile case of a wall built by Poland across…

We Must Recognise Women’s Work on Climate Action: Bushfire Survivor Jo Dodds

Aug 11, 2022 | Brianna Boecker

Jo Dodds watched a bushfire burn through her south coast NSW township and impact her own home on March 18, 2018. It was an event…

Indigenous Women at the Forefront of Transformational Change

Aug 9, 2022 | Jamison Ervin

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, commemorated annually on August 9, is a day to celebrate the many contributions of the 476 million…

Should Nigerian Forces Carpet-Bomb Forest Areas in Tackling Terrorism?

Aug 6, 2022 | Aliyu Dahiru

Several Nigerians, including political leaders in the country, have floated the notion of defeating terrorists in Nigeria with carpet bombing. Terrorists often seek refuge in Nigeria’s…

Russia’s Invasion Is Putting the Future of Ukraine’s Forests at Risk

Aug 5, 2022 | Yehor Hrynyk

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked Europe’s largest armed conflict since WWII and inflicted catastrophic damage on the continent’s largest nation. In addition to…

The ILC Draft Principles on the Protection of the Environment in Armed Conflict

Aug 4, 2022 | Stavros Pantazopoulos

After almost a decade working on the topic “Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts” (PERAC), the UN International Law Commission (ILC) adopted…

Closing the Gender Gap to Build Forward Better

Aug 3, 2022

Drinkable, usable water is very rare in cyclone-affected areas. One has to walk long distances to reach just a little bit of potted water. Otherwise…

Green Peace: How Israel and Its Neighbors Are Fighting to Save the Environment Together

Aug 1, 2022 | Chaim Lax

In Israel, the government has taken the danger of global warming seriously, with the Defense Ministry developing contingency plans for dealing with future heat waves and former…

Land Reform and Peacebuilding in Côte d’Ivoire: Strange Bedfellows?

Jul 31, 2022 | Matthew Mitchell

Though often seen as critical for promoting economic development, land reform is a deeply political process. Considering the symbolic and material significance of land to…

Women Entrepreneurs in Africa Face More Climate Risks Than Their Male Peers

Jul 28, 2022 | Kate Gannon

The world’s climate is changing. All of us will ultimately be affected by climatic shifts – but some will be hit harder than others.

On the African…

Climate Security: A New Kind of Enemy

Jul 28, 2022 | Wes Martin

Climate change poses a drastic rebalancing of geopolitics, ushering in an era of “climate security”. The world’s militaries will face new challenges as these conditions precipitate. The…

Sustainable Recovery? First Sustain Interest in Ukraine’s Environment

Jul 28, 2022 | Doug Weir

The environmental dimensions of all armed conflicts are becoming ever more visible. There are a number of reasons for this: improved access to earth observation…

The Congo, Its Minerals and Its Tribalism

Jul 27, 2022 | Jonathan Power

When the United Nations pulled its troops out of the Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, in June 1964, Secretary General U Thant…

We Can’t Fight Climate Change Without Fighting for Gender Equity

Jul 26, 2022 | Jamie L. Gloor, Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Corinne Post, and Winfried Ruigrok

As the climate crisis becomes increasingly urgent, organizations around the world have begun investing in a wide array of environmental sustainability initiatives. Some of these…