Resource consumption has grown exponentially over the past: between 1970 and 2010, the quantity of extracted materials has tripled. Not only the overall amount...
Finding domestic alternatives for rare earths has become a matter of national security, according to a recently released Pentagon report. The United States’...
The shift to a low-carbon economy is not only underway, it is accelerating. What does a rapid energy transition mean for the countries that supply the inputs...
A new report analyses how the transition to a low-carbon economy – and the minerals and metals required to make that shift – could affect fragility, conflict...
Environmental peacebuilding strives to reduce conflict risks associated with natural resources and to enable societies to profit fully from their natural...
Representatives from around the world are meeting in Bonn this week to discuss progress towards the goals of the Paris climate agreement. A large part of this...
The Earth’s front-line defenders are disappearing at an astonishing rate. On average three environmental activists were killed each week in 2015, according to a...
While natural resource development can generate economic success, it can also increase the likelihood of conflict, particularly in Africa. Ongoing violence in...
In 2010-11 Australia’s coal-rich Queensland region was hit hard by flooding events of historic proportions. They were the result of one of the strongest La Niña...
In May 2011, two weeks before I was scheduled to start research in the region, a Mongol herder named Mergen was hit by a mining truck while protecting his...
China’s economic slowdown is proving especially painful for countries that depend on Chinese investment. The Chinese are set to invest less in foreign countries...
Alaska is perhaps the place where the conflicting interests between core interests and requirements to reduce energy consumption or use more expensive renewable...
Natural resources rarely feature during peacebuilding efforts, but there is growing evidence that this is a mistake. The UN Environment Program and Department...
The vast quantities of resources that lie buried under the Arctic ice will become easier to exploit as the ice melts: 30% of the world’s unexplored gas and 13%...