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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category natural resources.
  • Women with Disabilities in Nigeria’s Mining Industry: Discrimination and Opportunities

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    Guest Contributor  //  December 2, 2022  //  By Nkasi Wodu
    Abuja,Nigeria,-,February,26,,2022:,Community,Sensitization,On,Covid

    Women and girls with disabilities worldwide are subject to multiple forms of discrimination—a fact that the 2022 International Day for Persons with Disabilities brings into sharp focus. Yet while all people with disabilities (PWD) face exclusion and widespread stigma, women face the additional burden of exclusion from full participation in economic and cultural activities. Both forms of discrimination result from the collaboration of outdated laws and prevalent societal stigmatization.

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  • Retiring Coal? The Prospects Are Brighter Than They Appear

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    Guest Contributor  //  November 17, 2022  //  By Brad Handler & Morgan Bazilian
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    As COP27 draws to a close, the conference is proving to be a disappointment for environmental advocates focused on eliminating the planet’s number one emitter: coal-fired power.

    Yet only a year ago, at the UN climate talks in Glasgow, it felt different. At that time, one could be forgiven for getting excited about the prospects for phasing out coal fired power. Countries had committed to ending its use. Tantalizingly, coalitions of international partners and multilateral development institutions also introduced mechanisms that could help finance closures at scale.

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  • Deadlock in the Negotiation Rooms to Protect Global Oceans

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    China Environment Forum  //  November 10, 2022  //  By Erica Yunyi Huang

    Greenpeace together with the High Seas Alliance gather for a photo op outside the United Nations in New York to remind delegates that time is running out and demand they  agree a strong global ocean treaty.   Governments are meeting at the United Nations in New York this week to negotiate a new Global Ocean Treaty, which will determine the fate of the oceans.

    For decades, western multinational companies have been profiting by exploiting plant, animal, or microbial genetic resources obtained from less developed countries. Take the neem tree, for example. Since the 1990s, international companies have registered more than 70 patents on products derived from India’s “tree of life.” Yet these patents have prohibited local people from using these trees (as they had for centuries) to make cosmetics, fertilizers, and medicines.

    International companies have now turned their eyes to the high seas in a new hunt for genetic resources. Concerned they will be left out of the potentially profitable patents once again, developing nations are demanding equitable use and benefit sharing of genetic resources in ongoing global ocean treaty negotiations.

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  • Creating a Just Transition in Green Minerals: A New Video from the Wilson Center and its Partners

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    From the Wilson Center  //  November 4, 2022  //  By Claire Doyle & Chris Collins
    Untitled (645 × 430 px)

    We need minerals to build the solar panels, wind turbines, and other technologies that will decarbonize our economies—and we need a lot of them. The World Bank estimates that demand for lithium, cobalt, and graphite could jump by as much as 500 percent by 2050. Yet mining for these resources has had a fraught history, and it continues to be associated with a hefty list of human rights and conflict risks, including  violence, child labor, poor working conditions, land rights abuses, environmental damage and pollution, and a lack of community participation.

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  • Community-centered Approaches to Green Mineral Mining: A Conversation With Pact’s Roger-Mark De Souza

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    New Security Broadcast  //  November 3, 2022  //  By Claire Doyle

    Pact Podcast Thumbnail

    According to the World Bank, building enough renewable energy infrastructure to keep global warming below 2C will require more than 3 billion tons of minerals. Reducing emissions quickly is crucial to minimizing risk for the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities, many of whom are on the front lines of a crisis they did not create. But unless we are careful, ramping up mining in order to decarbonize could actually worsen inequity and injustice. “How do we do this quickly, safely, and sustainably, in ways that benefit all?” asks Lauren Risi, Director of the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program in this week’s New Security Broadcast.

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  • New Analysis by Peter Schwartzstein: How Water Strategizing is Remaking the Middle East

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    Water Security for a Resilient World  //  October 27, 2022  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    Elazig,-,Turkey.,08.28.2019,Panoramic,View,Of,The,Elazig,Keban

    In the run up to COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the first summit of its kind to be hosted in the region, water is rising on the agenda, and for good reason. In a new essay for the Wilson Center, Global Fellow Peter Schwartzstein explores how governments across the Middle East are approaching a world with less water – and to what effect. Drawing on a decade of environmental reportage from the Middle East, Schwartzstein sketches out how, why, and with what consequences states have adopted often dramatically divergent strategies.

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  • What Better Looks Like: Breaking the Critical Minerals Resource Curse

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    From the Wilson Center  //  October 24, 2022  //  By Claire Doyle
    Screen Shot 2022-10-24 at 11.31.47 AM

    In recent years, the urgency of climate action has brought fresh attention to the critical minerals sector. Growing renewable energy investments are driving up demand for resources like lithium, cobalt, and copper, which form the mineral backbone of green technologies. But there are substantial concerns to navigate when it comes to sourcing green energy minerals.

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  • Protecting Human Rights in DRC Cobalt Mines: A U.S. Priority in a Green Transition

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    Guest Contributor  //  October 4, 2022  //  By Roger-Mark De Souza
    Untitled design

    Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken recently reaffirmed the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—a nation located in Africa’s heart—as a “geostrategic player and critical partner” for the United States. It is a country that features prominently in climate change discussions, not only because of  its vast natural resources (including mineral wealth estimated to be the largest in the world, as well as possession of a forest cover second only to the Amazon Basin), but especially due to its cobalt reserves.

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