Environment
SIDS and the Climate Crisis
In 2023, the world’s hottest year on record, the latest global climate summit – COP28 – took place in the United Arab Emirates. Again, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) seemed to be omitted from crucial conversations surrounding global emissions. This article examines the previous Conference of Parties, COP27, which aimed to place SIDS in the spotlight. It evaluates the significance of the deal agreed by participating parties following the conclusion of COP27 in Egypt and assesses the implications for SIDS around the world. While historic breakthroughs were made, especially in terms of funding the repairs for damages caused by climate disasters, the agreement seems to do little to combat the root causes of climate change, which must be addressed in order to achieve long-term security for SIDS.
Climate Change, Hurricanes and US Security
The effects of climate change are being increasingly felt across the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently predicted a seventh consecutive ‘above average’ hurricane season for 2022. This comes after suggestions by scientists that previous above-average seasons had been exacerbated by anthropogenic (human-caused) climatic factors. In line with this evidence, US political actors frequently depict climate-exacerbated hurricanes as a threat to national security. However, this rhetoric is not culminating in a sufficient adaptive and mitigative policy response.
UK Conservative Leadership: Climate Policy?
Recent unprecedented temperatures experienced within the United Kingdom – recorded as exceeding 40 degrees celsius for the first time – exemplify the increasing likelihood and intensity of severe heatwave events in the region as a result of climate change. This comes not long after the publishing of a new Progress Report by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), which highlights major failures in delivery of policy commitments vital to achieving the UK’s climate goals. With the Conservative leadership race in its final stage, Conservative party members are left with two choices, former chancellor Rishi Sunak and former foreign secretary, Liz Truss, but what of their commitments to a net-zero UK?
The Role of International Organizations in Climate Governance
International organizations like the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) are in many ways the leaders of global climate mitigation efforts. With their professional knowledge, monitoring functions, and facilitating capabilities for collaboration, international organizations should receive as much data as possible regarding the international execution of climate policies from state actors. In turn, they should use the findings to bridge existing gaps between countries in order to instigate a more efficient and globally coordinated effort to mitigate climate change.
Geopolitical Impact of “The Hydrogen Factor”
Energy security has been at the center of the geopolitical conversation in recent weeks, as the invasion of Ukraine has shed a light once more on Europe’s dependency on Russian oil & gas. The incident has left leaders scrambling for alternative energy supply, manifesting in part through the unveiling of the EU’s plan to end their reliance on Russian gas. Hydrogen as an energy carrier is a core pillar of this plan, with the European Commission calling for a quadrupling of hydrogen use by 2030.
Implications Intensify: Illegal Gold Mining in Brazil’s Amazon Region
A recent uptick in illegal gold mining in Brazil’s northern Amazon states is particularly concerning for private sector actors operating in the territory. It is also posing a serious challenge to the implementation of consistent and effective public policy to curtail such activities.
Can Climate Action Save Castillo’s Faltering Peruvian Presidency?
On 21 September, President Pedro Castillo announced that Peru would declare a climate emergency and fulfill its environmental commitments. Since then, Castillo has survived congressional efforts to impeach him but the implications of his diminished authority for delivering on climate change, are less clear.
Opinion: Climate Governance: A Blueprint for the Nation-State
National Governments’ enormous power should be translated into effective actions in climate governance. That includes both maximizing its own capabilities to mitigate climate change, and playing a central role in collaboration with other actors in the ecosystem of climate mitigation action.
Opinion: Environmental Crime: A Global Threat to Our Planet
Green crime has climbed the agenda of financial institutions, law enforcement, regulators and the technology sector following the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased presence of the climate crisis. The pandemic in particular shone a blinding light on the global wildlife trade and the impact its lack of regulation can have. Companies are increasingly focusing on markers of environmental related crime, however the pace remains slow and poses a threat to increased levels of sustainability fraud.
European Union: Wildfires Ask Burning Questions on Disaster Prevention
As global warming accelerates climate change, Europe is experiencing more wildfires. Despite a downward trend in fires in Mediterranean Europe, record heat waves in the Summer of 2021 have caused the region to erupt in flames once more. Mediterranean economies are particularly vulnerable to wildfire damage and illustrate how the European Union should focus as much on fire prevention as on combatting blazes.
