Briefing Paper on Nuclear Weapons, the Environment, and the Climate Crisis


Publisher: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Date: 2023

Topics: Climate Change, Land, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution

Countries: Algeria, France, French Polynesia, Russian Federation, Ukraine, United Kingdom

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Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing humanity, and the threat of nuclear weapons is another. Nuclear weapons production, testing, and use all damage the environment and exacerbate the climate crisis. At the same time, the increase in extreme weather events and rising sea levels caused by the climate crisis accelerates the risks of radioactive contamination from nuclear weapons activities. Beyond production, testing, and use, nuclear war may become more likely due to a climate crisis driven rise of resource-scarcity and conflict.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is the first international agreement on nuclear weapons to recognize the impacts nuclear weapons have on the environment and to ban the use, production, and hosting of these weapons under international law. Further, Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW create positive obligations to redress the environmental harms of nuclear weapons use and testing. Most importantly, the TPNW addresses the root of the problem, oering a solution to the environmental threats that nuclear weapons pose by banning all nuclear weapons activities.