“We need young people from Somalia sitting at the decision-making tables of negotiations”, says Hassan Yasin, the co-founder of the Somali Greenpeace Association (SOGPA). Established in 2019, his non-profit organisation promotes climate and environmental justice in Somalia, a country disproportionately hit by the disastrous consequences of a combination of climate change and conflict.
On 17 June (14.45 - 16.00 CET) the Planetary Security Initiative (PSI) is organising a public event on the climate-related security risks and opportunities for environmental peacebuilding. As a knowledge hub, PSI links climate change and security, aiming to catalyse action in affected contexts.
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.
