Why We Have Launched the Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS)

May 4, 2018 | Doug Weir
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Back in 2011, when we were first planning to launch CEOBS’ predecessor the Toxic Remnants of War Project, we had been wrestling with a number of questions that had become apparent in our work studying and campaigning on depleted uranium weapons. Why were environmentally harmful activities that are restricted in peacetime permissible during conflicts? Why was there no clear international mechanism for addressing post-conflict environmental assistance? Why were the environmental dimensions of conflicts systemically under addressed? And how could we encourage greater attention on those affected by the environmental pollution and degradation common to many armed conflicts and military activities? These questions, and many others, would form the basis of the Project’s work. But what began as an exploration of toxic and polluting legacies, unavoidably expanded to cover law, politics and the nature of the international system. Throughout this time, we had always considered the Project to be temporary, a scoping project, the aim being to identify those areas where civil society could best contribute to the fast-developing interest in addressing the environmental dimensions of conflicts.