Institute for Environmental Security
Advancing Global Environmental Security through
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What's New?
'Vision' has a new image
A complete remodelling for IES web-GIS tool on Environment and Security
The July 2008 version of 'Vision' combines a new image with a more user friendly interface. With 'Vision', both Internet Explorer and Firefox users can directly access online maps and illuminating data, partly based on original remote sensing data.
Users such as decision makers, natural resource managers, and researchers can utilise 'Vision' as a tool to access and analyse mapping and monitoring information in their planning process and to inform decision. Meanwhile the public around the globe can utilise 'Vision', as an important tool for increasing awareness among all relevant stakeholders on the issues in these important eco-regions. As the data presented in this tool is regularly updated, it enables local, national and international organisations to take early action whenever violations of environmental law and treaties occur. Therefore 'Vision' can contribute to the maintenance of security, which is under pressure as a result of ecosystem deterioration.
This web-GIS tool currently focuses on the 3 study areas that are part of the IES programme Environmental Security for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) that is carried out with a grant of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These areas are:
- Central Kalimantan, on the Indonesian part of Borneo
- The Matavén region in Colombia; also part of the greater Guyana Shield region.
- The transboundary region between Rwanda, Uganda and the DR Congo, in the heart of the African Great Lakes region.
The IES has recently started a fourth case study in the Congo Basin. The related Web-GIS interface will be added during the course of this year.
The Challenge to Repower America
100 percent carbon-free electricity within 10 years
17 July 2008
On July 17 2008, Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore challenged America to produce 100% of its electricity “from renewable energy and truly carbon-free sources within 10 years” in a speech held in support of the We Campaign. The We Campaign is a project of "The Alliance for Climate Protection", a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Al Gore with the aim of educating the people to the urgency and solvability of the climate crisis.
During his speech, Gore condemned America’s “over reliance on carbon-based fuels", which he said, "is at the core of all three economic, environmental and national security challenges”. “We are borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change”, he insisted.
Gore praised America to take a new start, calling it at “generational moment when we decide our own path and our collective faith”. “It is time for us to move beyond empty rethoric, we need to act now”, he concluded.
More information on the We Campaign | Watch Al Gore\'s speech
Book Launch: Globalization and Environmental Challenges
Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century
14 July 2008
On July 14, 2008, the Institute for Environmental Security, in cooperation with Brussels based think tanks The Centre, The Egmont Institute, and The EastWest Institute hosted the launch of “Globalization and Environmental Challenges. Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century,” the third volume of the Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace. In this book, 91 authors from around the world and from a variety of disciplines reviewed the relationship between security, peace, development, and the environment and offered alternative security futures.
After a short introduction by Simon O’Connor from The Centre, the floor was given to Ambassador Ortwin Hennig who opened the discussion by underscoring the main themes of the book. He noted, as have the authors and editors in this volume, that the security debate has changed fundamentally since the end of the Cold War. Security has become globalized. Borders no longer offer protection, and threats have become diffuse. The concept of security must be adapted to these new realities. As a possible solution, Ambassador Hennig called for the establishment of an “International Panel on Conflict Prevention and Human Security” and a “Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security” as two key advisory and advocacy mechanisms to raise attention to key policy issues pertaining to stability and peace and the new threats and challenges.
The floor was then handed to Prof. Dr. Ursula Oswald Spring from the University of Mexico and PD Dr. Hans Guenter Brauch, FU Berlin, who explained the evolution of perceptions in recent years and the obvious ‘securitisation’ of global environmental change since 2000. Having identified inequality as the greatest threat to security, Professor Spring insisted on the necessity to reach ‘sustainable processing’ as the only way to reduce inequalities effectively. In this regard, “only a global context, she argued, offers an arena for political action”.
Tom Spencer, from the Institute for Environmental Security, saluted the historical coverage of the book, despite its lenght and suggested a shorter version for next editions. Spencer explained that the link between environment and security started to gain ground in the 90s with a debate on greening weapons. However, the reconceptualisation of environmental security occured at the end of the 90s when the debate was widened to other policy sectors although the military remained central in raising awareness about the dangers associated to climate change.
Prof. Dr. Sven Biscop from EGMONT - Royal Institute for International Relations concluded the 90 minutes long session by thanking all the participants and organisers for their attendance.
More information about the event
New ESPA Report: 'Charcoal in the Mist'
An Overview of Environmental Security Issues and Initiatives in the Central Albertine Rift
1 July 2008
“Charcoal in the Mist” shows how large population densities and increasing food and energy needs have resulted in a continuously growing demand for land and firewood, as well as an increasingly attractive charcoal industry - especially around Virunga National Park in the DR Congo. In a region already characterised by violent conflicts and large numbers of displaced people, the resulting environmental effects (forest degradation, declining wildlife, soil erosion, over-fishing and water pollution) pose even greater dangers to the survival of man and nature.
This report also tries to give an overview of current activities by many (inter)national organisations, in the field of mapping and monitoring, diplomacy and law, finance and economics, empowerment and training, nature conservation and eco-tourism. Further, by making specific recommendations on "the way forward", this report aims to inspire people and organisations, in order to strengthen environmental protection, enhance security and promote sustainable development in the Central Albertine Rift.
More information about the programme | More information on the report & download
The Climate Quad: Geopolitics, Tactics and Quick Hits
Major Powers Re-assessing their Foreign and Climate Policies
18 June 2008
Success in the on-going international climate change negotiations “requires a deal between the USA, China, India and the EU” according to Tom Spencer, IES Vice Chair. Speaking at a recent meeting of the Council for Multilateral Business Diplomacy, Mr Spencer said that the need for such a deal “not surprisingly reflects the current state of geopolitics, where all the major powers are re-assessing their foreign policy in the light of the emergence of a multi-polar world - a world in which the security of energy supplies and the impact of climate change on security are key building blocks.”
The meeting, held in Brussels on 18 June, focused on the latest developments in the preparations for the G8 Summit and the Bali Action Plan and their potential effect on global business.
Mr Spencer said he believed an agreement amongst the Quad is possible around the principle of “Contraction and Convergence”.
“In a world where food price increases threaten the stability of many governments, it is surely time that we recognised the impact of climate change on the security situation of countries faced by millions of environmentally-driven refugees or displaced persons,” Mr Spencer said.
