Еnvironmental responsibility during the war

The article substantiates the cause-and-effect relationship between the emergence of military conflicts and society’s orientation towards consumer values and the ruthless depletion of natural resources for profit, which leads to a significant deterioration in the environmental situation worldwide. Natural resources, favorable climatic conditions, geographical advantages, and a developed industrial base are all key factors contributing to wars, which in today’s globalized society take on hybrid forms, making it difficult to hold parties accountable for environmental crimes. Accordingly, the issue of environmental responsibility of belligerent states for crimes committed against nature is relevant and needs to be addressed both at the international and national levels. The purpose of the article is to study the phenomenon of environmental responsibility at two levels – philosophical and legal. The philosophical aspect allows for the identification of the moral and ethical factors influencing human disengagement from ecological awareness. The legal aspect examines the problem of the effectiveness of the principles and norms of international and national environmental law in wartime. Having conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of environmental responsibility from both philosophical and legal perspectives, we identified the mental causes of environmental problems, specifically those that clearly reveal the way of thinking and core values of contemporary society, and also clarified the existing problems and prospects in international law regarding individual and national liability for crimes against nature. The originality of the study lies in the fact that, firstly, the problem of environmental responsibility is considered in direct relation to the social, ethical, and legal factors shaping modern society; secondly, we have substantiated the need to develop a Fifth Geneva Convention for the protection of the environment during armed conflict and made proposals regarding its content; thirdly, the authors’ methodology for assessing the environmental responsibility of countries is presented based on data from authoritative international indices. The methodology includes criteria for environmental responsibility (achievement of sustainable development goals, environmental efficiency, rule of law, social progress) and the calculation of the index for five countries involved in armed conflicts. The results obtained demonstrate that wars, especially long ones, not only destroy ecological systems but also reduce the level of environmental responsibility involved countries and lead to a general decline in ecological awareness.