Panel | Shared Leadership. Shared Future. Leading Urgency and Resilience in Climate and Peace Emergency

Session Submission Type: Panel Discussion

Short Description

In the face of converging and complex emergencies, the world needs strong, compassionate, and courageous leadership. Join this session to explore leadership approaches in the paradigm of climate change, environmental degradation and sustainability, and peacebuilding. The Geneva sector has spent the past 2 years breaking down silos between major organizations and actors of all backgrounds in order to develop the research, policy, and practice urgently needed. This session will engage the complexity of relationships between environment, climate, conflict, and peace together with leadership expertise to create change.

Detailed Abstract

In the face of converging and complex emergencies, the world needs strong, compassionate, and courageous leadership. Join this session to explore leadership approaches in the paradigm of climate change, environmental degradation and sustainability, and peacebuilding. The Geneva sector has spent the past 2 years breaking down silos between major organizations and actors of all backgrounds in order to develop the research, policy, and practice urgently needed. This session will engage the complexity of relationships between environment, climate, conflict, and peace together with leadership expertise to create change.

This discussion focuses on the challenges and solutions present for the future of climate change, environmental degradation, and peacebuilding, and the kind of leadership (from scholars, policy-makers, or otherwise) required to realize meaningful and sustainable change. It is co-organized by the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).

This panel will present and facilitate discussion on the White Paper on the Future of Environmental Peacebuilding. The global research project engages scholars, practitioners, and advocates around the world in order to articulate the patterns of consent and disagreement in the environment, climate, conservation, conflict, security, and peace fields. The project aims to produce a crosscutting policy oriented document to empower policy-makers to more effectively respond to the complex interaction of environmental challenges and related conflict dynamics.

The panel will feature the following contributors:

Ambassador Thomas Greminger, Director, Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP)
Carl Bruch, President, Environmental Peacebuilding Association, and Director of International Programs, Environmental Law Institute
Silja Halle, Manager, Climate Change and Security Programme, United Nations Environment Programme
Dr Patrick Sweet, Co-Director, Geneva Leadership Alliance, Center for Creative Leadership

Chair/Moderator: Annika Erickson-Pearson, Head of Community Management, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform

By grounding the discussion in the White Paper, we ground the discussion in evidence, scholarship, and multi-sectoral collaboration. The panel will consist of a presentation of the core findings and arguments of the White Paper by Carl Bruch. Then, it will move onto the expert discussant Silja Halle for commentary from practice and Geneva-based perspectives. The keystone of the session is to engage the attendees themselves for their insights from a leadership standpoint, moderated by facilitator and organizer Annika Erickson-Pearson. The aim of the session is to foster innovative thinking and connection between the leadership and environmental peacebuilding fields. Therefore, attendee participation is the emphasized goal of the discussion, focusing on eliciting varied perspectives. The expected outcome of the session is (1) new ideas from the leadership sector that may contribute to the environmental peacebuilding field, and (2) sharing core expertise and evidence from the environmental peacebuilding field to the leadership sector, which (3) lays the groundwork for future collaboration and cooperation.

The White Paper on the Future of Environmental Peacebuilding project was developed not only to advance a policy agenda for environmental peacebuilding, but also to foster inter-institutional collaboration and shared innovation for the field. It is intentionally designed as a highly collaborative project, inviting institutions to work together to develop submissions, and creating space for field-wide reflection on drafts at each step of the process.

The White Paper is a policy-oriented document, to be developed through a reflexive, consultative, multi-stakeholder process. It aims to deliver a strong, cogent message about the future of the field to the Stockholm+50 forum in June 2022. The draft of the paper, completed in September 2021, will be presented for discussion at a series of different conferences and convenings throughout 2021 and 2022 in order to widen the range of expertise contributing to it. In addition to the ILA, other touchpoints include the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September 2021, Geneva Peace Week in November 2021, and the Second International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding in February 2022.

The goal of both the White Paper and this discussion is to stimulate thinking, policy, and funding for innovative programs and solutions around environmental peacebuilding. The threats facing our planet and communities require collaboration and bold leadership. The conversation will not stop with this panel, but continue over time to support the realization of these goals.

Sub Unit

• Leadership for Peace

Chair

• Annika Erickson-Pearson, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform

Presenters

• Thomas Greminger, Geneva Centre for Security Policy

• Silja Halle, UNEP

• Patrick Sweet, Patrick Sweet

• Oli Brown, Geneva Centre for Security Policy

• Cedric de Coning, NUPI