Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has told the COP31 climate conference that his country wants compensation for the environmental damage caused by US and Israeli strikes, arguing that the harm done by war should be part of the global climate debate.

Speaking in Antalya, Turkey, on Wednesday, Pezeshkian said the international community should recognise the link between peacetime climate commitments and responsibility in wartime. COP31, hosted by Turkey, runs from 9 to 20 November.

A call for wartime accountability

“We expect the global community to establish a genuine and meaningful link between climate commitments in times of peace and responsibility in times of war, to document and assess the environmental damages caused by military aggressions and to develop compensation mechanisms,” Pezeshkian said, according to Reuters.

Climate agreements currently provide billions of dollars to help developing countries adapt to climate change, but they contain no provision covering environmental damage caused by military strikes.

The damage Iran cites

Iranian assessments cited in regional reporting put the carbon dioxide released by strikes on fuel facilities at about 1.5 million tonnes — roughly 500,000 tonnes from Asaluyeh on 18 March and about one million tonnes from fuel storage near Tehran on 7 March. Those figures have not been independently verified.

Reuters reported that the attacks have also caused substantial oil leaks, adding to the environmental toll.

War in its eighth month

The United States and Israel launched a military campaign against Iran in late February, and the conflict has since spread to Lebanon and the Gulf, with repeated strikes on energy infrastructure. No compensation mechanism for wartime environmental damage exists under the climate agreements. Source: Reuters