International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

Madam President, Excellencies, I thank the Government of Sierra Leone for convening this timely meeting. In 2001, the United Nations General Assembly invited the United Nations system, and international and regional organizations, to mark 6 November each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict – an enduring reminder that protecting nature is inseparable from protecting people in times of crisis. In doing so, Member States recognized that environmental harm during armed conflict can degrade ecosystems and natural resources long after hostilities end, often across national borders and beyond the present generation. My first point is that environmental damage caused by conflicts continues to push people into hunger, disease and displacement – and therefore increasing insecurity. Conflicts lead to pollution, waste and the destruction of critical ecosystems, with long-term implications for food security, for water securi...

Armed conflict increasingly generates severe and lasting environmental harm, with direct implications for international peace and security.  Warfare  damages ecosystems; contaminates air, soil and water; destroys agricultural land; accelerates deforestation and biodiversity loss; and devastates urban infrastructure. These impacts erode livelihoods, aggravate humanitarian need, fuel displacement and entrench cycles of instability by intensifying  competition over scarce resources . The United Nations estimates have found that a quarter of the world’s population, approximately 2 billion people, live in conflict-affected areas.1 This widespread conflict not only destabilizes human populations but also drives the degradation of natural resources, which include renewable resources like water, land, forests and other ecosystems. In turn, this  environmental decline  deepens fragility and worsens humanitarian crises. Illustrative cases underline the global scope. For i...

While climate change exacerbates conflict-causing tension, conflict, in turn, leads to pollution and ecosystem damage, the Security Council heard today, in a wide-ranging discussion on climate and security. “Imagine a mother living in one of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods” of Haiti’s capital, Maranatha Dinat, World Relief Haiti, told the 15-member organ. “Her home, already weakened by erosion, is flooded after heavy rains come. She is forced to flee with her children, crossing gang-controlled areas and unsafe roads to reach an improvised camp. This is the reality for thousands of Haitian families,” she said. When hurricanes tear off roofs, rising waters flood the plains or droughts dry out the hills, “it is always the same displaced or marginalized families who pay the highest price”, she added. “In a country where much of the population depends on subsistence agriculture, every climate shock becomes both a humanitarian emergency and a driver of instability,” she added. The in...