Third Annual Conference on Conflict, Climate, and the Environment in the MENA Region

The years 2024 and 2025 witnessed intense armed conflicts across several MENA countries, including Gaza, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In each of these contexts, the conflicts have directly harmed the environment and weakened the capacity of these countries and societies to cope and adapt to environmental changes. Meanwhile, efforts toward environmental recovery face major challenges, especially amid persistent political fragmentation, economic crises, reduced international funding and institutional collapses.

Organized by the Arab Reform Initiative and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, this conference broadly explores the nexus between conflict, climate change, and environmental degradation in the MENA region. Topics include legal debates around the emerging concept of ecocide, the correlation between labor and conflict economies, commonalities between the Iraqi and Syrian contexts, the toll of warfare on Gaza and reconstruction plans for a greener recovery and the environmental aftermath of war.