This article was adapted from Stephanie Speck’s remarks at the 2025 Berlin Climate Security Conference.

When I arrived in Mogadishu in 2013 to set up and lead the Office of the President’s communication and media department, I had the privilege of being invited to breakfast with the President. As I made my way through the layers of security leading to the presidential residence, I noticed an older woman walking behind me—cradling a chicken under each arm. She followed closely, undeterred by the checkpoints that stopped others.

A massive flood in Somalia killed hundreds of people, and displaced tens of thousands more. Yet the survivors faced a vexing prospect when they tried to return home: Al-Shabab had moved in.  

Stephanie Speck, Head of Special Initiatives at the Green Climate Fund, observed at a recent Stimson Center event that Shabab’s new levies meant that residents could not to move back to farm their land.  

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program 

Corruption Stymies Environmental Crime Fight in the Amazon (Mongabay) 

In the Andean Republics, rampant systemic judicial corruption has challenged the entire justice system, with judges implicated in both bribery and extortion. Because leadership from judges is essential for the success of reform efforts ranging from anti-corruption campaigns to environmental crime enforcement, the result has been damaging to the entire justice system in the region for more than a decade. 

The global energy transition is often framed as a balancing act between climate commitments on one hand, and sufficient energy and economic security on the other. That framing assumes the transition will mean less: less energy, less growth, and a steady decline in fossil fuel use. But this rhetoric is, as Ambassador Anthony Agotha put it at last month’s Berlin Climate Security Conference a “false choice.”

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Revisions to Indonesian Law Promote Unregulated Mining (The Diplomat)

Since gold was discovered in 2011 on Mount Botak in Indonesia, thousands of miners have flocked to the area without official permits. It is an influx which has transformed this northeastern region from an agricultural center into a hub of small-scale, unregulated mining. Uncontrolled use of mercury and cyanide has severely polluted local rivers, with mercury levels in the Waekase River reaching 0.05 mg/L—or 50 times the WHO’s safety threshold. Yet despite the government’s move to close the mine in 2015, illegal activity continues.  Ineffective law enforcement has caused ecosystem destruction, public health threats (including neurological disorders and kidney damage) and deadly conflicts between residents.

From Kenya to Morocco to Madagascar, waves of protest have erupted across Africa. Africans—and especially young Africans—have grown increasingly frustrated with a lack of economic opportunities.

So, it is no surprise that when Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan survey research organization, asked people across 39 African countries which issues they think their governments should prioritize, people ranked unemployment as the top policy priority.

US Resistance Delays Vote on Shipping Decarbonization Rules (Mongabay)

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has voted 57-49 to postpone the adoption of the “net-zero framework” until October 2026.  As the shipping sector’s first binding deal on global greenhouse gas emissions, the agreement would have established progressively stricter intensity limits starting in 2028. The framework also imposed substantial fees for noncompliance, with high emitters facing up to $1.5 million in additional annual fees by 2035 that could raise fuel costs by roughly 20%. Low-emission vessels would be rewarded with tradable carbon allowances.

Launched in 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has drawn wide global attention, with scholars and policymakers examining its geopolitical and economic implications. Much less explored, however, are the subnational impacts of BRI in participating countries. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), adopted as Pakistan’s flagship BRI project in 2015, offers a case in point.