Environment of Peace

The Environment of Peace (EP2022) project is an ambitious new initiative that aims to increase global understanding of the impacts that simultaneous environmental crises are having on peace and insecurity. It will analyse the drivers of and linkages between environmental change and its social dimensions—examining not just climate change but the consequences of issues such as the loss of biodiversity, water insecurity and land degradation. It will explore the challenges and opportunities ahead, presenting clear and practical recommendations that can be adopted at different levels of decision making.

The initiative leads up to 2022, the year which marks the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference)—the first major intergovernmental conference to look at the human relationship with the environment and wider developments in both the environmental and peacebuilding spheres. For this anniversary SIPRI will release the initiative’s findings in a report provisionally entitled Environment of Peace.

The project is led by SIPRI under the guidance of a panel of international experts. The panel will be chaired by Margot Wallström, former Swedish Foreign Minister and former European Commissioner for Environment. Among the panellists are Jörg Balsiger, Director of the Institute and Hub for Environmental Governance and Territorial Development at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Administrator of the UN Development Programme (New Zealand), Ilwad Elman, Chief Operating Officer, Elman Peace and Human Rights Center (Somalia), Chibeze ​Ezekiel, National SDGs Champion, Coordinator, Strategic Youth Network for Development (Ghana), Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (India), Hindou Ibrahim, Sustainable Development Goal Advocate and environmental activist (Chad), Ma Jun, Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (China), Johan Rockström, co-Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Germany/Sweden), Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Attorney General and Minister for Economy, Civil Service and Communications of Fiji (Fiji), Dan Smith, Director of SIPRI (United Kingdom), Isabel Studer, Founding Director, Sostenibilidad Global (Mexico), Ulf Sverdrup, Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (Norway).

Listen to SIPRI Director Dan Smith discuss the project and its aims in a recent Peace Points episode.

Contact

For additional inquiries, please contact the project secretariat (Secretariat: environmentofpeace@sipri.org).