The Impact of Russia’s War against Ukraine on Climate Security and Climate Action
Publisher: Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe
Author(s): Oli Brown, Antony Froggatt, Natalia Gozak, Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska, Orysia Lutsevych, and James Nixey
Date: 2023
Topics: Climate Change, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Russian Federation, Ukraine
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation may have begun on 24th February 2022, but it was preceded by the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation in February and March 2014 and more than eight years of de facto occupation by the Russian Federation of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The disastrous human and environmental toll of the war in Ukraine is having seismic geopolitical ramifications, including raising the spectre of catastrophic nuclear war. At the same time, the war is increasing vulnerability to climate change around the world and complicating collective efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is particularly the case in Ukraine, but it affects all OSCE participating States as well as countries beyond. While the war is an immediate existential threat for Ukraine, climate change is a short-, medium- and long-term threat around the world, particularly for the most vulnerable, including women, children and the poor.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the war on people’s vulnerability to climate change, to understand the cascading security impacts that climate change could precipitate, and to consider what the war means for the prospects for ambitious climate action in Ukraine, in the OSCE area, and globally.