In today’s episode of The Arc, ECSP Director Lauren Risi interviews Dr. Robert McLeman, a professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Toronto. Dr. McLeman unpacks how climate change interacts with social, economic, and political conditions in ways that lead some communities more vulnerable to climate-related displacement than others. He also shares insights into how we can better promote safe, dignified, and just migration in the context of climate change and how justice and equity considerations are being incorporated into climate migration policy.

In today’s “Relief, Recovery, and Peace” episode on New Security Broadcast, we’re featuring an interview recorded by the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program (MEP) with Peter Schwartzstein, a Wilson Center Global Fellow and environmental journalist. In a conversation with MEP director, Merissa Khurma, Schwartzstein discusses the impact of the war in Gaza on COP28 and environmental peacebuilding efforts more broadly in the region. He also talks about how to advance the new theme of peace in COP discussions and what his hopes are for a best-case scenario coming out of the upcoming summit.

In a new mini-series previewing the upcoming UN Climate Summit (COP28)’s new focus on relief, recovery, & peace, ECSP Program Director Lauren Risi spoke with David Nicholson, Director of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Technical Support Unit at Mercy Corps.

Nicholson described his role in ensuring that climate change is at the center of Mercy Corps’ wide-ranging and successful global humanitarian aid programs in 42 countries—and the importance of having local staff to make interventions a true partnership. He also talks about climate finance, and his hopes that COP28’s theme of “relief, recovery and peace” will advance the view that peacemaking is essential to adaptation efforts. 

In the first episode of The Arc, ECSP’s Claire Doyle and Angus Soderberg speak with Dr. Maureen Miruka about the complex relationship between gender, climate, and agriculture. Dr. Miruka, who is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Research at CARE USA, emphasizes the disproportionate impact of climate stressors on women and vulnerable populations through the lens of food systems. She also underscores the pivotal role women play as change agents in global climate mitigation and adaptation, and makes a call to broaden the scope of research in this space to include other gender minorities.