The sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) took place from 26 February to 1 March 2024 at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
On 24 February 2024, on the 2nd anniversary of the launch of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine, the preliminary consultations with civil society groups started with overview of environmental aspects of wars and conflicts, in particular in Ukraine. EPL representative gave a brief overview of the current environmental situation in Ukraine and how it was affected by the hostilities.
It was important to present facts and general picture about the war in Ukraine, which is also a catastrophe for the environment in global terms. Burned forests and devastated whole ecosystems, mined territories and flooded thousands of hectares of earlier fertile land, millions of dead animals, water and soil poisoned with chemicals from explosions all this makes the environment so dangerous that it kills people, not immediately, in months, years or even decades but it kills people.
As a representative of environmental law organization, EPL representative emphasized the importance of ensuring legal accountability of Russia as aggressor state for the war-linked environmental damage and importance of developing proper legal framework for this. Also, it was emphasized how important it is to look more closely at multilateral environmental agreements and see how they can address environmental consequences of the war.
Speaking about accountability, it is vital to speak about collecting evidence and relevant data. Thus, we find it crucial to strengthen international efforts towards collection of data on environmental damage associated with the war in Ukraine and determining that the harm to the environment is long-term, severe and lasting.
EPL representative called on the United Nations Environmental Programme to strengthen collaboration with all relevant stakeholders that can contribute their efforts to assess the environmental impacts of the war.
Because the environment knows no borders and environmental catastrophe in Ukraine has global impact, environmentalists from the whole world have to united their efforts towards overcoming the environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Importantly, participants of UNEA-6 worked on the resolution on environmental assistance and recovery in areas affected by armed conflict that was adopted at the UNEA-6 meetings. The text of the resolution can be found here: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ltd/k24/006/96/pdf/k2400696.pdf?token=gGir3bwYeuEMxKnHAS&fe=true
