Symposium on the Water-Energy-Peace Nexus

Oct 8, 2025 | Environmental Peacebuilding Association and University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa and online
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The Environmental Peacebuilding Association and the University of Ottawa are pleased to announce that they will host a one-day thematic symposium on the Water-Energy-Peace Nexus, which will take place at the University of Ottawa and online on Wednesday, October 8, 2025.

Access to basic services is fundamental for addressing humanitarian crises, rebuilding livelihoods, advancing just solutions, and restoring trust in institutions in conflict-affected and post-conflict countries. Providing access to clean water and energy is vital for advancing environmental peacebuilding. Efforts to provide water and energy often take place in isolation from one another despite clear synergies between water and energy, as governments and non-state actors focus on restoring previous systems that were destroyed or impaired. Yet, energy is often needed to power water and sanitation treatment systems and to pump water for irrigation. 

This symposium will explore a range of solutions, including smaller-scale solutions that could be employed to provide water and energy in conflict-affected regions in a just and sustainable manner. These might include the use of renewable sources of energy and decentralized systems of water provision. Global cuts in humanitarian and development assistance will require not only more low-cost and nimble solutions for peacebuilding along with the inclusion of other actors such as the private sector.

The symposium will feature a series of panels with presentations from scholars, practitioners, and students. It will also showcase the winners of the ninth Al-Moumin Award for Thought Leadership in Environmental Peacebuilding: Nada Majdalani, Yana Abu Taleb, Gidon Bromberg, and Tareq Abu Hamed.

If you are interested in making a presentation, please submit your proposal here. The symposium organizers anticipate inviting some of the proposed presentations to be included in a special issue of Environment and Security.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is July 14, 2025. People will be informed of the results by July 31, 2025.

The symposium home page is here.  If you are interested in receiving more information on the symposium (including information on when registration opens, etc.), please complete this short questionnaire.  

[The formal registration process will open later.]

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at conference@environmentalpeacebuilding.org.