Environmental impacts and causes of conflict in the Horn of Africa : a review

The Horn of Africa region stands out amongst the planet's territories that are most volatile and vulnerable to armed violence. Conflicts have greatly affected the region over the past 50 years. The conflicts have disrupted the lives of people as well as the environment in ways that are not fully understood. Although armed conflict has generally had a negative impact on the environment, the environmental impact of conflict within the Horn of Africa has barely been evaluated. Similarly, our understanding that climate variability as well as change could have played a role in increasing or decreasing the impacts of conflicts within the Horn of Africa is insufficient. Therefore, this paper looks at the environmental impacts of conflict in the Horn of Africa since 1970 and also the role of climate variability in increasing or decreasing the impacts of conflict. Scientific publications as well as grey literature were reviewed with the aim to understand the status of past and present conflicts in the Horn of Africa, environmental impacts of conflict and the role of climate variability in decreasing or increasing impacts of conflict. The review demonstrates that conflict has extensive negative impacts on the environment in the Horn of Africa with main causes like grievances, government behaviour and interests, resource scarcity and trans border conflict as well as internal migration and climate variability. Similarly, climate variability plays a great role in exacerbating the impacts of conflict in the region. However, further research is needed to clearly show the impact of conflict and climate variability on the environment in the Horn of Africa

Rethinking energy, climate and security: a critical analysis of energy security in the US

Understanding the complicated relationship between energy, climate and security is vital both to the study of international relations and to ensure the continued survival of a world increasingly threatened by environmental change. Climate change is largely caused by burning fossil fuels for energy, but while discussions on the climate consider the role of energy, energy security debates largely overlook climate concerns. This article traces the separation between energy and climate through an analysis of US energy security discourse and policy. It shows that energy security is continually constructed as national security, which enables very particular policy choices and prioritises it above climate concerns. Thus, in many cases, policies undertaken in the name of energy security contribute directly to climate insecurity. The article argues that the failure to consider securing the climate as inherently linked to energy security is not just problematic, but, given global warming, potentially harmful. Consequently, any approach to dealing with climate change has to begin by rethinking energy security and security more broadly, as national (energy) security politics no longer provides security in any meaningful sense

From a climate-security nexus to conflict- sensitive climate actions for peacebuilding and human security

The climate change and security nexus is an evolving area of research and policy. At the outset of work in this field, major research concentrated on how climate change is adversely impacting human well-being. However, in recent years, academics began to reflect critically on the social, cultural and political construction of vulnerabilities and developing understandings of climate change as a risk multiplier. Different aspects of the conflict-security nexus and its future trajectories became subject to critical academic scrutiny, including at a 2021 conference at Hamburg University where more than 100 scholars of relevant research interests from across the globe discussed and debated twenty-eight presented research papers. A total of sixty-five scholars from over twenty institutions have contributed to those research papers and participated in extensive discussions. The conclusion of these discussions highlights how climate change is an opportunity to reflect upon everyday injustices in distribution and access to resources as integral to concerns with security and conflict. A holistic approach to the nexus of climate change and security is thus vital to efforts to promote and realise societal development efforts while minimising social and environmental injustice

The Give-or-Take-Some Dilemma

The social dilemma paradigm traditionally addresses two types of collective action problems: give-some and take-some resource management dilemmas. We highlight several limitations of this paradigm in addressing more complicated resource management problems where actors both give and/or take resources simultaneously or sequentially. In this paper, we first extend the social dilemma paradigm by merging give-some and take-some dilemmas into the give-or-take-some (GOTS) dilemma. This extension internalizes several environmental elements of uncertainty that are assumed to be exogenously determined in the social dilemma paradigm. Second, we formalize the GOTS paradigm for one-shot and iterated situations. Lastly we discuss how the GOTS dilemma may be used to help address several complex and timely resource management problems.

Migration and the 2030 Agenda

The migration of people poses many challenges but also opportunities and has strong implications for the success and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conversely, the 2030 Agenda consti-tutes a vital opportunity to improve migrants' lives. This Voices asks: how should migration be integrated into, and actioned within, the SDG framework to maximize positive, and minimize negative, outcomes?</p

Optimal Biorefinery Locations and Transportation Network for the Future Biofuels Industry in Illinois

This article addresses development of the Illinois ethanol industry through the period 2007-2022, responding to the ethanol production mandates of the Renewable Fuel Standard by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The planning for corn-based and cellulosic ethanol production requires integrated decisions on transportation, plant location, and capacity. The objective is to minimize the total system costs for transportation and processing of biomass, transportation of ethanol from refineries to the blending terminals and demand destinations, capital investment in refineries, and by-product credits. A multi-year transshipment and facility location model is presented to determine the optimal size and time to build each plant in the system, the amount of raw material processed by individual plants, and the distribution of bioenergy crops and ethanol

Optimal Biorefinery Locations and Transportation Network for the Future Biofuels Industry in Illinois

This article addresses development of the Illinois ethanol industry through the period 2007-2022, responding to the ethanol production mandates of the Renewable Fuel Standard by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The planning for corn-based and cellulosic ethanol production requires integrated decisions on transportation, plant location, and capacity. The objective is to minimize the total system costs for transportation and processing of biomass, transportation of ethanol from refineries to the blending terminals and demand destinations, capital investment in refineries, and by-product credits. A multi-year transshipment and facility location model is presented to determine the optimal size and time to build each plant in the system, the amount of raw material processed by individual plants, and the distribution of bioenergy crops and ethanol.Agribusiness,