Our newly-updated online bibliography shows a remarkable increase in scholarship on ecocide this year. A striking trend is the surge in work on the  environmental impact of war. As highlighted in Al Jazeera’s Inside Story and the OpEd in The Conversation, the scale of CO₂ emissions from conflict is staggering, and, astonishingly, still not subject to any obligation to report. 

Clearly, much remains to be done. 

To this end, we are collaborating with Climate Counsel on a Manual for Prosecuting International Environmental Crimes, building on experience prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine. Expert contributors will update on this project at our December 5 side event at the  Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. 

And with Kate’s recent address at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, we reached a new audience, one for whom the debate around criminalising ecocide is not yet an everyday topic. 

A small milestone: this month we reached over 2,000  followers on LinkedIn. We are grateful for each and every one of you! To help us reach even more people, please follow us on  LinkedIn,  Instagram, and Bluesky  if you haven’t already.  

Thank you for your ongoing support!  

The Promise Team 

Gaza’s bombardment has produced tens of millions of tonnes of debris, much of it hazardous, while attacks on water, food and energy systems threaten irreversible collapse. Ukraine’s war has generated colossal emissions and contamination.

Watch Al Jazeera's Inside Story with Adrian Finighan, Elaine Donderer, Disaster Risk Specialist and Farai Maguwu, Director of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance and our ED Kate Mackintosh, who answers the questions:

"Why was the environmental cost of war not on the agenda at COP 30 and could an international crime of ecocide change accountability?"

Following two years of war, Gazans are living among millions of tonnes of rubble. Mohammed Saber / EPA

People across the Gaza Strip have been returning to towns and cities badly damaged by the war after a fragile ceasefire took effect in October. Eventually, their lives will be restored and their homes will be built back. But the climate consequences of the war will remain for years to come.

Research demonstrates that the equivalent of over 32 million tonnes of CO₂ was generated in the first 15 months of the war. This is equal to the greenhouse gas emissions of roughly eight-and-a-half coal-fired power plants in one year or the annual greenhouse gases emitted by Jordan.

The war in Ukraine has had a devastating environmental impact, too. One study, published in February 2025, concluded that the equivalent of nearly 237 million tonnes of CO₂ were released as a result of the war in the three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion. This figure is similar to the annual emissions of Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia combined.

Read the full article by our ED Kate Mackintosh and Benjamin Neimark in The Conversation.

How can environmental devastation during armed conflict be investigated, documented, and prosecuted? And what can the international community learn from Ukraine's unprecedented efforts to bring environmental war crimes to justice?

The groundbreaking  "Environmental War Crimes Guide for Ukrainian prosecutors"  is being transformed into a Manual for worldwide application in conflict and beyond. This event brings together the principal contributors to the Manual: leading practitioners who have worked directly on these questions throughout the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The session is chaired by Xuchen Zhang, Legal Advisor, UCLA Law The Promise Institute (Europe) and features interventions from: Maksym Popov – Former Special Adviser to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General; Richard J. Rogers  – Founder of  Climate Counsel and lead author of the Environmental War Crimes Guide for Ukrainian prosecutors;   Andrii Latsyba – Legal Counsel with Ukrainian NGO  Truth Hounds, documenting and analysing attacks on dams and water infrastructure, and Kate Mackintosh  – Executive Director of the UCLA Promise Institute for Human Rights (Europe).

At the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, our ED Kate Mackintosh explored how the criminalisation of ecocide would support businesses to respect environmental and human rights. 

Criminalisation introduces a deterrent effect that civil, administrative, or ESG-driven approaches simply cannot replicate. The possibility of individual criminal liability for directors and decision makers will change how companies evaluate risk, structure operations, and allocate capital. It encourages firms to design projects that are fundamentally safe, rather than externalising catastrophic environmental costs, often to a vulnerable community. 

Ecocide will target only the most egregious environmental damage, but its effect is broader: it recalibrates incentives, supports responsible businesses, and strengthens the position of companies that already prioritise human rights and environmental stewardship. As a crime, it shifts the burden away from communities and back onto those with the power, and the responsibility, to prevent catastrophic harm. 

We are delighted to see a surge in scholarship on the topic of international law and the protection of the environment this year. Not only are there more publications - we counted a staggering  65 legal articles already - but the depth and range are striking. The concept of ecocide is being examined by scholars in many fields of expertise. 

Notable, though hardly surprising in today’s global context are the large number of papers focussing on the environmental damage caused by war. 

Our UCLA research assistants  John Dover and Ayodele Babalola continue to track new publications, write synopses, and collect everything for you in the annotated bibliography at  EcocideLaw.com! 

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