Margot Wallström, former European Commissioner for the Environment and former Foreign Secretary of Sweden, led an international expert panel at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute to study the intertwined risks of global environmental crises and conflict.
We read about risk and conflict in the headlines every day. How does environmental degradation play a role in conflict, peace and security?

We now have compound environmental crises and a darkening security situation interacting with other factors and the fallout of COVID-19. We have had two cataclysmic events occur in the last two years. The most serious pandemic in living memory has claimed millions of lives. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed many thousands of people. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of state-based armed conflicts roughly doubled, to 56, as did the number of conflict deaths. On top of that, we are experiencing an acute environmental crisis that is making a return to stability much harder. Species are becoming extinct 10–100 times faster than in the last 10 million years. Around a quarter of all species are at risk of extinction, pollinating insects are in rapid decline, soil quality is falling, and natural resources such as forests and fish continue to be exploited at unsustainable levels.