Climate and security: environmental impact of…

Letter dated 28 October 2025 from the Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General (S/2025/687)

Briefers:

• Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
• Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme
• Charles C. Jalloh, professor, University of Miami Law School, and member of
  the International Law Commission
• Civil society representative.

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.

Key objectives of the briefing are to:

• Elevate recognition of conflict-driven environmental harm as a security risk that
  compounds humanitarian crises, undermines governance and can fuel renewed conflict;
• Draw lessons from diverse conflict contexts on impacts on ecosystems,
  agriculture, water systems, urban infrastructure and public health;
• Identify practical tools to prevent, monitor and remediate environmental damage during and after conflict, integrating these into political, peacekeeping, humanitarian and development responses;
• Promote United Nations system coherence (United Nations Environment Programme, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Department of Peace Operations, United Nations Development Programme and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and partnerships with regional organizations and international financial institutions to align financing for remediation, stabilization and climate adaptation.

[Extract from the concept note]