How are peace and environmental issues connected?

This event ended on 15 March 2022. Read excerpt here Analysing the relationship between peace and environmental issues.

According to the Ecological Threat Report 2021 by IEP, approximately 2.4 billion people are food insecure and 2.6 billion people are living in countries exposed to high and extreme water stress. On the other hand, countries with enough socio-economic resilience or Positive Peace are more likely to cope with ecological shocks. However, ecological fragility has significant links with conflict. While scarcity of resources leads to conflict, the ensuing conflict results in resource degradation, thereby forming a vicious cycle. To address these challenges efficiently, it is essential to increase resilience and levels of peacefulness.

The private sector must advance to overcome the impact of ecological threats on their operations and, most importantly, to avoid causing harm on local communities. The activities further damaging biodiversity and the environment, such as deforestation, may have an impact in the community at large - particularly in those with low levels of resilience and high scarcity of resources or exposure to natural disasters. The way forward points at a further engagement in sustainability as well as in the resilience-building of communities.

These topics will be approached during the second webinar of the series Positive Peace and Climate Change Mitigation.

Event Speakers/Participants

• Mr. Serge Stroobants, Director of Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Institute for Economics & Peace
• Mrs. Julie Bleeker, Sustainable Business Transformation Manager at Greenfish

The discussion will be moderated by Ms. María José Maldonado, Programme Manager, Institute for Economics & Peace.