Environment of peace : [electronic resource] security in a new era of risk / Lead authors: Richard Black, Joshua Busby, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Cedric de Coning, Hafsa Maalim, Claire McAllister, Melvis Ndiloseh and Dan Smith

SIP2223

"May 2022"."

The environmental crisis is increasing risks to security and peace worldwide, notably in countries that are already fragile. Indicators of insecurity such as the number of conflicts, the number of hungry people and military expenditure are rising; so are indicators of environmental decline, climate change, biodiversity, pollution and other areas. In combination, the security and environmental crises are creating compound, cascading, emergent, systemic and existential risks. Without profound changes in approach by institutions of authority, risks will inevitably proliferate quickly. Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk surveys the evolving risk landscape and documents a number of developments that indicate a pathway to solutions––in international law and policy, in peacekeeping operations and among non-governmental organizations. It finds that two principal avenues need to be developed: (a) combining peacebuilding and environmental restoration, and (b) effectively addressing the underlying environmental issues. It also analyses the potential of existing and emerging pro-environment measures for exacerbating risks to peace and security. The findings demonstrate that only just and peaceful transitions to more sustainable practices can be effective––and show that these transitions also need to be rapid. Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk offers policy principles and recommendations for navigating this new era of risk. A longer report setting out the evidence base in detail will be published later this year.

Authors: José Alvarado, Anniek Barnhoorn, Noah Bell, Daniel Bell-Moran, Emilie Broek, Alexis Eberlein, Karolina Eklöw, Jakob Faller, Andrea Gadnert, Farah Hegazi, Kyungmee Kim, Florian Krampe, David Michel, Corey Pattison, Caleb Ray, Elise Remling, Evelyn Salas Alfaro, Elizabeth Smith and Jürg Staudenmann

In December 2022, the Environment of Peace initiative released a research report that sets out the evidential and analytical foundations on which the policy report is built. The research report is published in four parts—Elements of a Planetary Emergency (part 1); Security Risks of Environmental Crises (part 2); Navigating a Just and Peaceful Transition (part 3); and Enabling an Environment of Peace (part 4). For more information: https://sipri.org/research/peace-and-development/environment-peace

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