Sustainability
Sustainability
The worrying recent trend in re-armament comes at a moment in human history where our planet’s life-sustaining climate system is increasingly compromised by rising global temperatures. There is an urgent need to rapidly decarbonize the global economy to limit climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Just as the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 presented unprecedented, and potentially dire threats to world security, it also enabled the implementation of imaginative initiatives like the M2M agreement; so too may the growing recognition of extreme weather—sea-level rise, polar melting, droughts, and hurricanes—and the resulting economic, social, and political dislocations create new opportunities for urgent collaborative action that were not previously considered realistic.
However, unless designed with justice and social vulnerability in mind, efforts in an energy transition may present disproportionate risks for already marginalized populations around the world. After a decline in nuclear power as an energy source, the scientific community is once again examining its potential as a tool for decarbonization. In this context, CNDSI’s work explores the environmental peacebuilding and decarbonization dividends of cooperative nuclear disarmament.