International Action to Protect People, Planet, and Peace: Building a UN system-wide environment, peace and security agenda
art by Lynn Finnegan (Ireland)
Wim Zwijnenburg and Brittany Roser (PAX); Adriana Erthal Abdenur (Plataforma CIPÓ)
Systematic efforts should be taken to better integrate environmental peacebuilding and security measures into UN policies and responses to improve their coherence, effectiveness, and sustainability.
Context
Throughout history, armed conflicts have left a path of destruction on the environment, with devastating and long-lasting impacts on civilians. In recent decades, military deployments have consumed vast amounts of natural resources, emitted considerable volumes of greenhouse gases, and caused wide-scale destruction of ecosystems, pollution, and food and water insecurity throughout parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Conflicts have fuelled (and been fuelled by) environmental crimes such as illegal deforestation, logging, and mining.
What’s been done
Only recently has the international community begun to pay systematic attention to the links between wars and the environment. International policy discussions about the relationship between climate and security implications have intensified, particularly at the UN Security Council (UNSC).[i] However, such discussions and their resulting outputs rarely address the impacts of conflict on the environment, instead focusing almost exclusively on climate change as a driver of conflict. Nonetheless, renewed efforts to mainstream environmental peacebuilding and security measures in other areas of international policy, including in humanitarian responses, strategies for the protection of civilians (PoC), and general conflict prevention approaches, could lead to more integrated, effective, and sustainable peace and security policies.
Indeed, from the UNSC, related debates on climate-related peace and security risks have spread to different parts of the UN system, including the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC),[ii] as well as across the Secretariat.[iii] The cross-agency UN Climate Security Mechanism (CSM) was established in 2018 and further launched the creation of an informal Community of Practice on Climate Security, a joint forum open to all UN staff to exchange and build knowledge on climate security issues. At the normative level, various UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) resolutions,[iv] the work of the International Law Commission (ILC),[v] UNSC Arria formula meetings,[vi] and high-level UNSC and UNGA side events on the links between the environment, climate, and conflict,[vii] have also drawn attention to the issue and boosted political support among Member States. This can be further seen in current initiatives taken by Member States, with the encouragement of civil society organizations, to include conflict-linked issues and nature-based solutions within UNEA-5 discussions on “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Despite such progress, the international focus remains overwhelmingly on climate impacts and drivers of conflict, while the devastating impacts of conflict-related environmental degradation often remain overlooked. Furthermore, UN bodies, agencies, and international agreements currently deal with the impacts and relationship between the environment and armed conflicts in a highly fragmented fashion, if at all. As noted by Professor Ken Conca, despite a focus on human rights, peace, and disarmament, the lack of a coherent UN approach to conflict and the environment (as well as peace and the environment) represents a missed opportunity to utilize and engage the “full force of the UN mandate to bear on environmental challenges,” including those in relation to climate and conflict.[viii]
Looking ahead
In order to truly mainstream the Environment, Peace and Security (EPS) agenda across the UN system, we suggest the following key recommendations:
● Adopt a thematic resolution establishing the EPS agenda and supporting efforts to mainstream environment, climate, and conflict angles throughout the work of the UN system to increase reporting and data sharing, provide a more uniform conceptualization and coherent UN approach, and improve the sustainability of UN response measures.
● Appoint a UN Special Representative on EPS to promote the collection of information and regularly report on the impacts of the environment-climate-conflict nexus and to foster international cooperation and coherence in incorporating environmental and climate sustainability measures across the UN system.
● Support the inclusion of language in resolutions and raise concerns about environmental dimensions of armed conflict and climate security in national interventions in all relevant debates and briefings across the UN system.
● Establish a Core Group of Member States to begin developing a roadmap for EPS policy development, coordination, and implementation. Such an initiative could complement the work of the existing Group of Friends on Climate and Security[ix] and the Informal Expert Group on Climate and Security[x] to allow States to work together to develop a meaningful set of criteria for mainstreaming the environment throughout all relevant UN policy discussions and response mechanisms.
● Integrate the EPS agenda with the mutually reinforcing aspects of related thematic agendas in peacebuilding, development, human rights, and security policies and practices, particularly Protection of Civilians, Climate and Security, Women, Peace and Security, and Youth, Peace and Security, among others. This includes relevant UNSC, UNGA, and PBC discussions, and extends to the Human Rights Council and UN Environment Assembly’s work where human rights and conflict linked issues should be part of relevant discussions.
● Prioritize the inclusion of data collection and information-sharing on environmental dimensions of armed conflict and linked climate security challenges in UN reporting and field operations. This must include identification, monitoring, analysis, and sharing of data on risks and impacts, particularly for civilians. Local communities, including women, youth, and indigenous groups, must meaningfully participate in such assessments and priority-setting for more inclusive and sustainable remediation and reconstruction efforts, including nature-based solutions.
[i] Climate and security-related UNSC debates on 17 April 2007, 20 July 2011, 18 July 2018, 25 January 2019, 24 July 2020, 23 February 2021, 23 September 2021, and 9 December 2021; UNSC Open debate on the humanitarian effects of environmental degradation and peace and security on 17 September 2020.
[ii] PBF. (2020) Climate Security and Peacebuilding, United Nations Peacebuilding Fund: New York, (https://www.un.org/peacebuilding/sites/www.un.org.peacebuilding/files/documents/brief_climate_security_20200724_2.pdf.)
[iii] For example, the Joint UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Environment Unit; UN Habitat’s work on urban areas and environmental risks; the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is addressing environmental issues in reconstruction settings; the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program have incorporated work on conflict-linked food security risks; UNICEF (UN Children’s Fund) is producing research on attacks on water infrastructure; and UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is improving environmental aspects of humanitarian demining.
[iv] UNEP/EA.2/Res.15 (2016); UNEP/EA.3/RES.1 (2017)
[v] ILC. (2021) Analytical Guide to the Work of the International Law Commission: Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts, International Law Commission: Geneva (https://legal.un.org/ilc/guide/8_7.shtml.)
[vi] UNSC Arria formula meetings on the protection of the environment during armed conflict on 7 November 2018 and 9 December 2019.
[vii] UNSC “PoC Week” side events on “Protecting the Environment is Protecting Civilians” in May 2020 and May 2021, and on “Conflict, Climate Change and Displacement” in May 2021; UNGA75 high-level side event on the humanitarian impact of combined conflict, climate and environmental risks in September 2020.
[viii] Conca, K. (2015) An Unfinished Foundation: The United Nations and Global Environmental Governance, Oxford University Press: Oxford. Oxford Scholarship Online. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190232856.001.0001.
[ix] Federal Foreign Office (2018) United Nations: Germany initiates Group of Friends on Climate and Security, Government of Germany: Berlin, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/themen/klima/climate-and-security-new-group-of-friends/2125682
[x] UNSC (2020) Letter dated 27 August 2020 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, United Nations Security Council: New York, S/2020/849, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N20/223/66/pdf/N2022366.pdf?OpenElement