A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Pakistan’s Grassroots Solar Mitigates Middle East Energy Crisis Impact (The Guardian)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 also sparked a grassroots solar boom in Pakistan. Surging LNG prices and unreliable grid electricity resulting from the war’s broader effects pushed citizens to invest in rooftop solar as a one-time cost alternative to perpetually high electricity bills. Between December 2021 and December 2025, solar energy’s share of grid-supplied electricity in Pakistan jumped fivefold. Today, solar provides one-fifth of the country’s electricity.

Increasing conflict in the Middle East has led Iran to block oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, while civilian energy infrastructure is under attack across the broader Gulf region. Pakistan’s reduced dependence on gas for daytime electricity generation has helped the country avoid approximately $12 billion in fossil fuel import costs. Analysts also argue that the repeated oil and gas shocks should motivate Asian countries (which have collectively committed $107 billion to new LNG infrastructure) to accelerate their own shift toward renewables, grid modernization, and battery storage at last as an economic and an energy security imperative.

READ | Taking the Slow Lane to Green Transition in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Dispute Settlements Stymie Latin America’s Environmental Protection Efforts (Mongabay)

New Transnational Institute data reveals 419 known investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims filed against countries in Latin American and the Caribbean – which total $36.6 billion in corporate lawsuits. The forum for these initiatives are international arbitration tribunals, which allow foreign companies to sue governments when national laws or regulations are seen as threatening their investments. Countries have been sued for actions ranging from nationalizing oil production to implementing financial crisis measures protecting citizens from rising costs. Between 2014 and 2024 alone, there was a 133% increase in such cases over totals from the previous decade.

The ISDS mechanism disproportionately favors corporations over governments, with roughly two-thirds of resolved cases decided in investors’ favor. Critics cite the system’s lack of transparency, high costs, and pro-investor bias. With increasing pressure for countries to divest from fossil fuels and invest in the clean energy transition, these lawsuits have placed a “regulatory freeze” on strengthening environmental regulations and the cancellation of extractive projects.

READ | Granting Rivers Legal Rights: Is International Law Ready for Rights-Centered Environmental Protection?

New Data Unveils Threat of Mining Tailings Dams to Communities and Biodiversity (The Guardian)

Repositories of toxic mining waste which contain heavy metals, acids, and other harmful materials are scattered throughout the world. When these “tailings dams” fail, they release massive floods of poisonous slurry with consequences that can last decades, including heavy metals accumulation in food chains that have fatal consequences for wildlife, and devastate local ecosystems. At least 108 tailings sit within key biodiversity zones and 9% are located in protected areas – posing a serious risk for biodiverse ecosystems around the world.

While disasters have prompted the development of safety standards, most mining companies are not members of the body developing tailings dams standards, making future disasters almost inevitable. A 2025 dam collapse in Zambia illustrates the catastrophic human and environmental toll that can result. A tailings dam at a Chinese state-owned copper mine breached in February of that year, releasing over 50 million cubic liters of acid and heavy metals into Zambia’s longest waterway, the Kafue River. The dam failure shut down drinking water for half a million people in Kitwe, killed wildlife, and destroyed crops for local farmers.

READ | Mining Giant Behind Deadly Dam Collapse Took Lax Approach to Corporate Responsibility