Commentary
Women’s leadership in environmental peacebuilding: converging nature, climate, and peace
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Abstract
This article examines the role of female leadership in environmental peacebuilding, focusing on the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It explores how women have been disproportionately affected by war, yet have emerged as key figures in addressing environmentally related challenges and promoting sustainable peace. Drawing on recent data and case studies, it argues that women’s increased participation is reshaping approaches to post-conflict recovery and sustainable reconstruction. The study highlights how women-led efforts in renewable energy innovation, energy transition, environmental restoration, green recovery, policy advocacy, and industrial sector participation contribute to both immediate recovery and long-term ecological resilience. By analysing these contributions, the commentary demonstrates the critical importance of integrating gender equality perspectives into environmental peacebuilding strategies and offers insights for policymakers engaged in post-conflict reconstruction efforts globally.
Keywords
Russian war against Ukraineenvironmental peacebuildinggender equalitysustainable reconstructionenergy transitionfemale leadershipgreen recoveryCopyright statement
© The author(s) 2025. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International LicenseCite this article
Kopytsia, I. & Slobodian, N. (2025), ‘Women’s leadership in environmental peacebuilding: converging nature, climate, and peace’, Journal of the British Academy, 13(2): a20 https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/013.a20crossref
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Russia’s current large-scale unprovoked invasion of Ukraine demonstrates that the environment matters, even though it is considered a secondary issue during conflicts. The war has dire consequences for people and nature, in both Ukraine and other European states. The Ukrainian case is viewed as a global system transformation factor: it has seen transboundary effects throughout the regions and the world. Of growing importance is the need to investigate the main principles and approaches in respect of environmental peacebuilding. We argue that this current war against Ukraine has proved that the world needs new approaches to sustainable peacebuilding, including environmental reparation and justice, and we propose a possible reparation mechanism through the world’s first Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
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