Environmental Peacebuilding: 2022 in Review

Jan 10, 2023 | Environmental Peacebuilding Association

2022 was another big year for environmental peacebuilding!

We started off the year with the Second International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding (1-4 February).  With a rise in the Omicron variant less than two months from the conference, we pivoted to a virtual conference.  That only seemed to enhance participation:  more than 2,100 people from 100+ countries participated in the 77 sessions, with 400 people participating remotely for three or four days.  The attendance and engagement were incredible for a virtual conference!

Less than three weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Throughout the conflict, the environmental impacts of the invasion have been a serious concern.  There has been widespread damage to civilian industrial facilities and targeting of water infrastructure.  The Chornobyl Nuclear Plant was occupied and used as a staging ground, mobilizing radioactive dust.  The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant was attacked, seized, and subsequently used to launch missile attacks.  Residential areas suffered extensive artillery, missile, and bomb attacks, generating large amounts of asbestos-laden rubble.  Protected areas burned.  Agricultural lands flooded. Ukrainian government authorities, civil society, and international partners have undertaken an unprecedented real-time documentation of the environmental impacts of the war. 

The invasion of Ukraine elevated the prominence of environmental peacebuilding.  Governments and civil society organizations participating in numerous high-profile international environmental meetings – from the Stockholm+50 International Meeting to COP27 – emphasized the environmental damage of war and highlighted the importance of peace to environmental integrity and sustainable development. 

In 2022, the International Law Commission completed its work on Principles on Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflict.  The ILC formally adopted the principles together with commentaries, and the UN General Assembly endorsed them on 7 December 2022.  Drawing upon international humanitarian law, international environmental law, international criminal law, international human rights law, and other bodies of law, these principles represent the most important international legal development in 45 years.  Attention now turns to dissemination and implementation.

The past year also saw increasing knowledge and political attention focused on climate and security. Research is providing growing empirical evidence of the linkages between climate change, conflict, and violence.  Moreover, there is growing awareness that responses to climate change can generate injustices that drive conflict.  For example, the transition to a carbon-neutral economy would remove an important source of revenue for several countries that rely on oil and gas revenues for their development and functioning – generating concerns about a “just transition.”  Moreover, the transition would require unprecedented extraction of minerals from lithium, cobalt, copper, and rare earth minerals, as well as land for solar power, wind power, hydropower, and biofuel facilities—potentially generating a “green resource curse.”  Research also highlights, though, that insecurity and conflict are not necessarily in our future.  Much depends on how the stresses and opportunities are managed.

As we enter 2023, COVID-19 is still a concern.  Too many people are dying every day.  And new variants continue to emerge. 

But our actions are no longer constrained by COVID as they have been for the past three years.  We are resuming in-person meetings, even as we continue to rely on Zoom and other means to connect with friends, partners, and colleagues around the world.  We are moving to a hybrid world that could – and should – be more inclusive.

Looking ahead, the Environmental Peacebuilding Association is preparing the first issues of Environment and Security – which will be the only peer-reviewed journal on the topic – to launch in September 2023.  And beyond that, we are preparing for the Third International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding to be held in The Hague from 19-21 June 2024.

We wish you all a wonderful, peaceful, and healthy 2023!

Carl Bruch

President, Environmental Peacebuilding Association

Here are a few milestones from 2020:

  • In 2022, the Environmental Peacebuilding Association continued to mature. Launched in 2018, by the end of 2022 the Association included more than 400 individual members from 65 countries on 6 continents, and 23 institutional members. The membership composition is 85% professional and 15% student. By the end of 2022, the Association had established ten Interest Groups (on Africa, Big Data, Disasters & Resilience, Education, Forests, Gender, Law, Monitoring & Evaluation, Water, and Young Professionals), and they were undertaking a wide range of activities.
  • The Environmental Peacebuilding Knowledge Platform (www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/), the leading global platform on issues related to natural resources, conflict, and peacebuilding, continues to grow. This year, we added 471 Library items, 29 Announcements, 119 Events, 374 Jobs, 594 International News articles, and 242 Blogs & Opinion pieces. At the end of 2022, we have 5,800 Library items and more than 7,800 International News articles. In 2022, the Association launched a dedicated microsite on Ukraine.
  • The Environmental Peacebuilding Community of Practice added 118 members this year. The Community is now almost 4,250 people strong, with members from more than 150 countries.
  • This year we celebrated nine years of publishing the Environmental Peacebuilding Update, our biweekly e-newsletter highlighting recent developments relating to natural resources, conflict, and peace, with links to new publications, international news, upcoming conferences and events, and job openings. Today marks the publication of the 235th issue.
  • Adapting to the pandemic, the Association held many virtual webinars, consultations, and skills-building events. By the end of the year, EnPAx had held 44 events. In the process, the Association adopted a number of measures to facilitate dialogue and networking.

Editor’s Note

As 2022 comes to a close, we hope you have enjoyed all of the selections offered through our Knowledge Platform. I have had the pleasure of serving as Editor of the Environmental Peacebuilding Update since 2015 and as Executive Coordinator of EnPAx since its incorporation in 2018. EnPAx is a small, volunteer-run, global organization with a dedicated team of contributors bringing to you the latest environmental peacebuilding initiatives, publications, news, job opportunities, events, and opinions from the field. Each of the pieces we publish to our website are carefully compiled, curated, and coded to ensure that the most relevant, interesting, and noteworthy developments in environmental peacebuilding are accessible to our community. We are grateful to receive submissions to the Knowledge Platform from both EnPAx Members and members of the Environmental Peacebuilding Community of Practice and are delighted to meet and discover emerging voices for environmental peacebuilding.

Favorites of 2022: Editor’s Picks

2022 was a busy year for environmental peacebuilding which means there was a lot to read! 471 publications, videos, and other items were added to the online Library.  Here are some of our favorites from the year:

Of the 594 news and opinion articles posted on the Knowledge Platform in 2020, here is a selection of some of our favorite stories:

 

The war in Ukraine was the top story of 2022 for environmental peacebuilding. As such, a selection of the top publications, news, and opinion pieces regarding the environmental dimensions of the war in Ukraine is warranted. Whether for you to re-visit or catch-up on the developments of 2022, here is our selection of thoughts, research, and reporting from the field on the Ukraine war. More items are available at https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/featured/ukraine/:

    We at EnPAx sincerely thank all our Members, volunteers, contributors, and supporters for helping us have another positive and productive year of building the Association and Community of Practice. As Editor of the Update, I humbly thank all our dedicated readers for tuning in to this newsletter every other week. I hope that you have as much enjoyment from reading the Environmental Peacebuilding Update as we do from publishing it.

    Ahead to 2023!

    Joel Young

    Editor, Environmental Peacebuilding Update