February 18, 2021

…A new report from CEOBS examines what steps states and private companies should take to reduce corporate environmental harm in areas affected by armed conflicts. To do so it explores the principles in three normative frameworks – the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the International Law Commission’s draft principles on the Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts. In this blog, its authors Taygeti Michalakea and Stavros Pantazopoulos introduce the report…Corporations, natural resources and armed conflict..The intersection of conflict and the environment is a relatively recent field of study and practice, even though environmental harm during conflicts has been present since ancient times. Beyond intentional environmental harm as a tool of war, conflicts can intersect with the environment in other ways. This includes conflict over natural resources, as is the case in Colombia where the conflict has been historically attributed to the unequal distribution of land;1 conflict over declining resources; conflict that causes environmental degradation; and conflict over natural resource extraction processes.