Climate Action for Peace

Host (Sakshi Shree)

Our first speaker, Glaucia Boyer, serves as the UNDP Global Adviser on Reintegration, leading the work on transitions from military to civil life, traditionally known as Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR). Please join me in welcoming Glaucia Boyer.

Glaucia Boyer (UNDP Global Adviser)

Thank you very much, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. It's with great pleasure that I welcome you all to this side event of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, organized by the Youth NGOs (YUNGO) Working Group on Climate, Peace, and Security. Today, we gather under the theme of "Climate Action for Peace: Disarmament in the Environmental Rights Agenda."

As a Global Adviser for UNDP and serving as co-chair of the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR, I am honored to address this distinguished gathering. The IDDRTG shapes international standards through the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS). Within these standards, we have dedicated modules on DDR and youth as well as on DDR and natural resources.

Today's discussion is timely. Disarmament is not merely about reducing weapons, nor reducing the human cost of weapons as called for in the New Agenda for Peace. It's about creating conditions conducive to lasting peace and sustainable development. Environmental degradation caused by wars and high military emissions not only exacerbate conflict and insecurity but also threaten ecosystems and the success of climate action.

Youth organizations are at the forefront of this movement, advocating passionately for climate action and environmental justice. Your energy, creativity, and commitment are indispensable in driving meaningful change. Let us leverage this platform to foster collaboration and co-create solutions that advance our collective goals towards climate security.

Host (Sakshi Shree)

We now move on to our panel discussion on strategies to promote disarmament in the context of climate change. As rightly said by John Dewey, "A problem well put up is half solved."

Livia Lanari (International Relations, Universitas Indonesia)

I believe that our climate and environment can only thrive in a lasting and sustainable peace. It cannot flourish in a state of fluctuation, especially the ones that are man-made. Reviewing history, the world witnessed the first large-scale use of toxic chemical weapons in WWI, the even bigger WWII, decades of the Cold War with arms races, and ongoing conflicts in the post-Cold War period.

Sustainable peace is addressed in Article 26 of the UN Charter, where disarmament holds an essential position as a precondition for achieving it. I emphasize the urgency of the 2030 climate deadline. IPCC states global emissions must be halved by 2030 and net zero by 2050. We are six years away. SDGs are in peril; only 16% of targets are on track.

The total military carbon footprint is estimated at approximately 5.5% of global emissions. Nations are reluctant to share data about climate militarism. The world faces the highest number of violent conflicts since WWII, with 2 billion people living in affected places.

For the way forward, I believe the digital era and AI signal a new generation, increasingly interconnected and interdependent. The root to durable peace is sustainable development. As youth, we are change makers and can promote attitudinal change toward disarmament. Civil society is the supervisor of the government, holding them accountable to the SDGs.

Sebastian (Nuclear Disarmament & Environmental Advocate, Colombia)

I want to start talking about the nuclear disposal on the ocean and the perspective of disarming and environment restoration. This is an investigation that I started doing by myself using AI and satellites from NASA.

The nuclear waste disposal in the ocean from 1946 to 1993 by 11 countries has had massive environmental and health impacts. The TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) Articles Six and Seven address the obligation to environmental restoration and mutual assistance.

Using AI with ChatGPT, I started mapping the most specific places for nuclear waste in the North Atlantic Ocean. You can see the impact starting from 1961. I also use satellites from NASA and NOAA to visualize the effect of nuclear waste in the ocean.

In my conclusion, using AI is the best solution to make the restoration. The call to action: it's important to ratify the Treaty in all countries. If we have ratification, we have financial resources, linking disarmament with environmental protection. Here in Colombia, with the Minister of Environment, we started making the restoration of coral reefs and promoted growth to 1 million coral reefs this year.

Yousef Edris (Climate Change Expert, Kaduna State, Nigeria)

It's actually a shame to us all as Global Citizens that we cannot conduct ourselves in a manner that humans are supposed to, and this has cost billions of dollars and loss of lives. Disarmament, insecurity, and the environment all play around global politics.

I'll be speaking from the perspective of Africa and the Global South. We are a people with natural resources, but we are now the victim of the global arms deal. When poverty is so high, people no longer think about protecting the environment. Resources become a competition, leading to people taking arms against themselves.

If you take the case study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the environments where these bombs were dropped up till now are feeling the impact. The globe emits about 40 Gigatons of carbon dioxide every year. The young people must point it out to political leaders emphatically that the need for them to think for the future is very important.

In the Sahel region where Nigeria falls, Lake Chad has dried up more than 90% of itself. Boko Haram has been breeding there; conflict has been exacerbated by poverty and the environment. The ecosystem recovery is going to take more than 50 years.

Host (Sakshi Shree)

How can we effectively regionalize and localize the disarmament strategies to address both environmental as well as peace-related objectives?

Livia Lanari

I have the point of view of a bottom-up approach. It's more of how Civil Society initiates disarmament through capacity-building efforts as well as through building awareness and advocacy. Education is important because Civil Society supervises our government. By having knowledge and collective participation, we can pressure our government.

Sebastian

I think we need to create friends. If you create friends, you create partnership. The first step: we connect deeply with the planet and with human beings. Then we start making disarming and everything and make an effort for Peace. As one hibakusha mentioned, we need to create friends everywhere.

Yousef Edris

Everything that happens on the global stage starts from the local stage. At our local level, there will be a need for organizations with local governments and people in communities. Let them understand the impact of conflicts and environmental destruction. It becomes easier for us to pressure the government. If your president acts based on the needs and wants of their local people, it becomes easier because nobody wants war.

Glaucia Boyer

From my experience in UNDP, a great opportunity is now found in the Lake Chad Basin region. We have been supporting the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) to implement stabilization, recovery, and resilience. This regional effort goes down to Governor levels of all the countries concerned: Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad. The LCBC originally focused around the environment/natural resources but had to focus on conflict. Stabilization success now paves the way to look at really disarmament and climate change.

Yousef Edris

When you talk about resources, it's not just all about money. The human capital itself, the social capital, they are all resources that can be leveraged. In Nigeria, one of our major resources has been religious leaders, community leaders, and traditional leaders. They are so influential that people actually listen to them. The non-kinetic approach has been the best approach to disarmament—providing resilient sources of livelihood to people and educating them.

Host (Sakshi Shree)

Thank you to all our participants. Together we can advance both environmental and peace-related objectives. Have a wonderful day.