ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the expanding impacts of climate change and associated environmental issues as factors of continuing conflict or potential peace. It suggests a synergistic framework in which peacebuilding and environmentalism are mutually reinforcing, and how efforts in one sphere benefit the other. A central tenet of peace studies and environmental studies alike is that crises can also serve as opportunities for change. The chapter describes that the existential threat posed by climate change also presents a remarkable opportunity to proactively engage issues of justice and sustainability that draw closer to the root causes of the mounting crises in the first place. It indicates that the key elements for the success of any such environmental peacemaking effort. The key elements are, it must create minimum levels of trust, transparency, and cooperative gain, and it must strive to transform the nation-state itself, which is often marked by dysfunctional institutions and practices that became further obstacles to peaceful coexistence and cooperation.
