Leaders at COP30 are being urged to consider the environmental toll of conflict.
Speaking at this year’s COP30 in Brazil, UN chief Antonio Guterres called the inability to limit global warming to 1.5C (2.7F) a “deadly moral failure”. But does the same apply to protecting the environment during conflict?
Israel’s two-year war on Gaza has produced 61 million tonnes of rubble, nearly a quarter contaminated with asbestos and other hazardous materials. Scientists warn that Israel’s use of water, food and energy as weapons has left farmland and ecosystems facing possible irreversible collapse.
In Syria, President Ahmed al-Sharaa has pointed to his country’s worst drought in more than six decades as evidence of accelerating climate change and warned it could hinder post-war recovery.
So why isn’t conflict treated as a climate issue? And why is the environmental cost of war so often ignored?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests: Kate Mackintosh – deputy chair of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide; Elaine Donderer – disaster risk specialist; Farai Maguwu – director of the Zimbabwe-based Centre for Natural Resource Governance