War in Ukraine: the case for environmental peacebuilding and reparations

Abstract: Russia’s current large-scale unprovoked invasion of Ukraine demonstrates that the environment matters, even though it is considered a secondary issue during conflicts. The war has dire consequences for people and nature, in both Ukraine and other European states. The Ukrainian case is viewed as a global system transformation factor: it has seen transboundary effects throughout the regions and the world. Of growing importance is the need to investigate the main principles and approaches in respect of environmental peacebuilding. We argue that this current war against Ukraine has proved that the world needs new approaches to sustainable peacebuilding, including environmental reparation and justice, and we propose a possible reparation mechanism through the world’s first Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

Keywords: War against Ukraine, environmental damage, human cost, environmental peacebuilding, sustainable peace, environmental reparation, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).