The UN General Assembly adopted the PERAC’s 27 legal principles on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict on December 7. The International Law Commission’s ten-year effort to improve environmental protection in times of conflict and occupation came to a conclusion with this.

The new regulations are not viewed by experts as a panacea to stop environmental harm caused by war. They anticipate that it will increase awareness of the problem and aid in giving the environment after conflicts priority. According to Doug Weir, head of research and policy at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, “It’s a new way of thinking about the whole lifecycle of conflict” (CEOBS).

War has always had an environmental cost, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made this more apparent than ever. Improved monitoring and social media’s speedy news dissemination have contributed to a greater understanding of the value of environmental conservation.

The largest nuclear power facility in Europe, Zaporizhzhia, which was taken over by Russian military last March, has received a lot of media attention lately. The infrastructure of the facility has been harmed by shelling, according to Energoatom, the plant’s operating business controlled by the government of Ukraine. Due to this, there is now a higher risk of fires, hydrogen leaks, and radioactive material release.

Another nuclear power station in the nation was spotted by an attack drone in December.

Additionally, there have been several attacks on civilian and military facilities, and severe fires have ravaged the nation’s woods. The Donbas front in the east has seen heavy conflict that has devastated industrial infrastructure and polluted rivers and wetlands.

The 74,000 species of animals, plants, and fungus that call Ukraine home are affected greatly by the turmoil in Europe. At the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal in December, Ukraine’s environment minister Ruslan Strilets stated, “There is no safe corner in our nation, therefore [species] are all under threat, as well as the ecosystems where they exist.” He said that Russia had nullified the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

New protections

The new PERAC guidelines are not legally enforceable against states, but it is hoped that they will be put into practise through national legislation, military instruction manuals, commercial advice, and outreach to non-state armed organisations.

One important principle urges states to hold companies, and their subsidiaries, operating in and out of their nation accountable for environmental and health damage brought on by war. Weir called this a “quite radical” step by the International Law Commission to hold businesses more accountable, building on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and components of soft law – instruments or agreements that are not legally enforceable.

Making sure that natural resources are sourced ethically is one example of this. Conflict that is violent has historically given rise to more opportunities for illegal logging, which is still a major issue. Last year, organisations dedicated to sustainable forestry labelled wood from Belarus and Russia as “conflict timber,” which is ineligible for use in goods that are certified. To combat illegal logging, Ukraine’s environment minister Strilets has pledged to improve openness throughout the country’s timber supply chain.

Other principles introduce the notion that occupiers should utilise the natural resources of occupied lands in a sustainable manner, focusing on occupation in a way that Weir calls “quietly radical.” These features in particular were warmly embraced by the Palestinian envoy toward the conclusion of a discussion at the UN.

The environment received only a limited amount of protection under previous international humanitarian laws, mostly during international military conflicts. The expanded new PERAC principles address crucial subjects such Indigenous peoples’ rights, the utilisation of natural resources, business activity in conflict areas, and the effects of conflict on marine environments. They accomplish this by fusing parts of environmental, human rights, and security law with current state actions.

Director of environment and human rights at the US-based NGO Human Rights Watch, Richard Pearshouse, welcomed international attention to the problem, noting that it is frequently disregarded in favour of urgent human casualties. Communities may continue to experience environmental damage from violence decades after the fighting has ended. Therefore, it’s crucial to remember in the principles that environmental evaluations and cleanups ought to be a regular element of attempts to rebuild after a conflict.

Unexpected progress

States disagreed on what should be included during the protracted process of establishing the principles. Others refused to support legally enforceable agreements, while the US, France, and UK consistently opposed any measures that may forbid them from using nuclear weapons as a form of defence. China rejected attempts to use the principles in armed conflicts that are not international.

Weir believes that the conflict in Ukraine had an impact on the debates since there was less disagreement over the particulars and the significance of the rules themselves. All the principles were ultimately approved, despite the fact that several governments emphasised the fact that they did not impose any new legal requirements.

Now, the PERAC tenets must be put into practise. There isn’t a formal organisation or procedure to carry them out and keep track of them, unlike a legally binding international convention. Weir claims that international organisations, scholars, and legal experts are taking them seriously.

“For instance, there is much interest in the concepts of protected areas and how natural reserves might be safeguarded in times of war. Prior to recently, there hadn’t been any significant advancement on this, but now a number of organisations and institutions, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature, are working on it.

Environmental protection has been improved as a result of previous battles. For instance, the use of the chemical pesticide and defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War to obliterate cropland and forest cover resulted in changes to the Geneva Convention and the approval of a new Environmental Modification Convention.

The new PERAC guidelines are expected to aid Ukraine’s post-conflict reconstruction. These ideals will be put to the test in Ukraine, according to Pearshouse. Since so many industrial sites, including factories, pipelines, and refineries, have been destroyed by conflict, it will be crucial to identify and address environmental risks as part of any future reconstruction efforts.