Navigating a Just and Peaceful Transition: Environment of Peace (Part 3)

SIPRI’s Environment of Peace initiative focuses on managing the risks that are created by two interwoven crises: the darkening security horizon and the immense pressures being placed on the natural world and the systems that support life on earth.

The Environment of Peace research report is an in-depth look at the evidence base and analysis of the policy report Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk, including many real-world case studies. The report is the result of two years’ work by more than 30 researchers, led and guided by some of the leading voices in the fields of environment and security.

Accessibly designed, the new research report is available to download 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).

This part—Navigating a Just and Peaceful Transition (part 3)—focuses on needed transitions towards sustainability and climate resilience, with special attention given to areas such as land use, energy and climate response. Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Professor at Ohio University, and his colleagues argue these transitions must happen quickly and will inevitably meet opposition. Policymakers must prioritize both just and peaceful approaches to achieve sustained success. The authors analyse evidence from the major climate mitigation, adaptation and conservation approaches to illustrate the downsides of ill-considered interventions, while highlighting the opportunities and best practices. The green technology transition promises to remain mineral-intensive, creating familiar peace and justice challenges at a larger scale. Part 3 explores the potential for climate adaptation to help build and sustain peace, while documenting the main pitfalls of maladaptation. Finally, it looks at the need to manage the risks of transition in petrostates, as countries highly dependent on income from fossil fuels move away from this carbon-intensive energy source.

Read a separate annex that assembles a number of in-depth case studies and other input papers that were commissioned to inform the research and analysis in part 3 here.

Read the overview to the four-part research report here.

Read Elements of a Planetary Emergency (part 1), which lays out the conceptual and evidential landscape for Environment of Peace, here.

Read Security Risks of Environmental Crises (part 2), which shows how combinations of environmental and security phenomena are generating complex risks, here.

Read Enabling an Environment of Peace (part 4), which examines the legal and institutional landscape within which the twin crises—and humanity’s responses to them—play out, here.

Read the policy report Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk here.