On the 2nd and 3rd of June, world leaders met for the Stockholm+50 conference to discuss how to achieve a healthy planet for the prosperity of all. The UN meeting commemorated the landmark 1972 Stockholm conference, the first of its kind focussing on the environment. The event featured four plenary sessions along with leadership dialogues, side events, webinars and regional multi-stakeholder consultations.
Today the Expert Group of the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS Expert Group) launched a new report, Decarbonized Defense: The Need for Clean Military Power in the Age of Climate Change, the first in a series of papers comprising the third annual World Climate and Security Report.
Organized environmental crime has become one of the fastest-growing types of organized crime. In many conflict-affected contexts, it is the primary source of financing for non-state armed groups. In the light of this, how can peace operations and other multilateral actors respond to conflicts that are driven or sustained by activities that involve illegal exploitation and trade in natural resources?
The effects of climate change and water insecurity remain pressing issues – not only for Iraqis’ daily lives, but also for the country’s security. On 12 May 2022, PSI held its second climate-security dialogue in Basra, southern Iraq, in collaboration with Ozon for Sustainability, a local non-governmental organization. This event, titled “Fostering Climate Security and Environmental Cooperation in South Iraq”, convened over 80 local practitioners, academics and journalists.
As we have previously covered, militaries are both affected by climate change and contribute to it. While decarbonization increasingly receives military’s attention, other climate-related crucial policies, such as the European Green Deal, still largely omit the sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of our global system and the rife inequality across our world. It has also demonstrated clearly that business-as-usual is not fit to address current global challenges. In the run up to Stockholm +50, “achieving a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic” is central to examining and rebuilding the relationship between human and environmental wellbeing.
For the past few days, a heat wave of mind-boggling scale and intensity has gripped South Asia. More than 1 billion people in India and Pakistan have endured daytime highs of 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
On 12 May, the Planetary Security Initiative (PSI) is officially launching the Basra Forum (BF) for Climate, Environment and Security at its second climate-security dialogue in Basra, southern Iraq. The forum seeks to foster dialogue and collaboration among Iraqi civil society, governmental institutions, non-governmental organisations, academia, and other relevant actors working in the fields of climate change, environmental degradation and security.
