Olivia Lazard is a fellow at Carnegie Europe. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of climate, the transition ushered by climate change, and the risks of conflict and fragility associated to climate change and environmental collapse.
Olivia is an environmental peacemaking and mediation practitioner as well as a researcher. She has over twelve years of experience in the peacemaking sector at field and policy levels. With an original specialization in the political economy of conflicts, she has worked for various NGOs, the UN, the EU, and donor states in the Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan and North Africa, and parts of Asia. In her fieldwork, her focus was to understand how globalization and the international political economy shaped patterns of violence and vulnerability patterns as well as formed new types of conflict systems that our international governance architecture has difficulty tackling with agility. It is also through fieldwork that she came to observe the ways in which the plundering of ecosystems feeds conflict systems across the world and contributes to climate disruptions.
Her research at the field level and on thematic issues has led to support the European External Action Service in integrating environmental peacemaking as part of their mediation toolkit. Prior to joining Carnegie Europe, Olivia set up her own consultancy firm, Peace in Design Consulting, which remains exclusively active in conflict and fragile zones.
In a groundbreaking new book rooted in history and earth science, scholars Jonathan Blake and Nils Gilman advocate a paradigm shift toward “multiscalar” global governance that would transfers significant political authority from national governments to planetary institutions, as well as to localities.
While Egypt has made notable improvements in certain environmental sectors, it also remains one of the region’s worst polluters. To discuss what is being done to tackle Egypt’s environmental challenges in a sample of sectors, the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center is organizing an event on January 11, at 4:00 PM Beirut Time with Nadine Wahab, and Yasmine Hussein.
2023 revealed that the EU is less of a climate leader than it thought it was. To prepare for future disruptions, Brussels must invest in safe mining and strategic partnerships aimed at global de-risking.
Egypt finds itself at a critical environmental juncture, with climate change posing grave risks to its economy, sovereignty, and stability. A business-as-usual approach or maladaptation could have major adverse consequences.
The EU’s ability to deliver on its climate goals relies on strategic partners who provide mitigation assets. The union must work with them to usher in economic, climate, and ecological transformations.
China and Russia are using their economic advantage to shift governance systems in the Global South. Degrowth has a strong political-ecological proposition, but it needs to have a strong geopolitical and geo-economic one too.
Since 2011, the Arab world has undergone massive upheavals—geopolitical shifts, climate shocks, mounting economic pressures, and authoritarian restructuring, to name a few. Dynamic responses from governments and citizens are laying the shape of the next decade.
Rehydrating the Earth is an immense and urgent challenge. The EU must think outside the box to pave the way in making this happen.
On this episode, environmental peacemaker and mediator Olivia Lazard joins Nate to unpack the relationship between mineral deposits, conflict-vulnerable zones, and high biodiversity areas to create interlocking risks to geopolitical and climate stability.
The relationship between mineral deposits, conflict vulnerable zones, and high biodiversity areas creates interconnected risks to geopolitical and climate stability.
