Editorial of October 2024

By the Alessandra Silveira (Editor)

On peace and sustainability

Between 27 and 29 September 2024, the University of Minho hosted “Greenfest” – the largest sustainability event held in Portugal and one that has been running for 17 years.[1] I had the honour of speaking on the panel dedicated to “Peace” – which addressed issues related to the promotion of peaceful, just and inclusive societies – essential for sustainable development and social cohesion. 

In legal sciences, sustainability is understood as a process through which we pursue a global society capable of perpetuating itself indefinitely over time in conditions that ensure human dignity. From this perspective, anything that contributes to this process would be sustainable, while anything that deviates from it would be unsustainable. [2] For this reason, constitutionalists such as Peter Häberle or Gomes Canotilho consider sustainability to be the structural principle of a new secular paradigm – along the lines of those that followed in the development of modern constitutionalism: humanism in the 19^th century, sociality in the 20^th century, sustainability in the 21^st century.

In any case, talking about peace at a “Greenfest” necessarily brings us back to Kant and what he described as “Perpetual Peace” – a philosophical proposal on how peace can be achieved – especially as 2024 marks the 300^th anniversary of the philosopher’s birth.  Kant’s question was not whether perpetual peace would be feasible or utopian, but to devise the means to achieve this end. In other words, to adopt stable institutions that make it possible to avoid war – and thus achieve a peace that represents more than the absence of war.

For Kant, a stable world requires stable institutions. That is why he proposed that the constitutional order – in other words, rule of law, democracy, citizenship, etc. – would be in a position to tame the self-destructive forces of the human being – what Freud would later call the “death drive”, i.e., the human tendency towards aggression. The primary hostility of human beings towards each other is a constant threat to the disintegration of civilised society – says Freud in “Civilization and its Discontents” – because instinctive passions are stronger than rational interests. It is not easy for human beings to give up satisfying this tendency towards aggression – they simply do not feel at ease without it. So naturally, Kant was aware that there would always be wars. Yet war ought not to exist. It does, but it should not – this is the Kantian distinction between being and ought to be. It is therefore important to acquire the means to do more and better to avoid war.

Nevertheless, we are once again at war in Europe. Until February 2022, Europeans lived under the illusion of the “end of the war”, the illusion of the impossibility of the European Union’s (EU) involvement in a war effort, especially after the barbarity of totalitarianism. Putin’s attack on Georgia and then Crimea were not enough to awaken Europeans from their collective numbness. As we have already said on this blog, for the first time in its history the EU is facing an existential crisis that is forcing it to return to its origins and its initial political impulse: that of confronting war by re-establishing a new order, promoting structural interconnections of peace between nations, and rebuilding a Europe on the rubble of war.[3]

But where do war and sustainability intersect? Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has serious consequences for human life and health, animal welfare and biodiversity. The Russian invasion has caused air, water, land and soil pollution, as well as significant damage to ecosystems, with far-reaching repercussions on energy security, nuclear safety and global food security. And this is where war and sustainability unfortunately meet: war is definitely not sustainable. According to estimates by the European Parliament published in December 2023, which are the result of environmental inspections in Ukraine so far, the invasion has caused environmental damage worth more than 50 billion euros.[4]

Water, for example, is a strategic war resource – and was used by Russia in the city of Mariupol to provoke surrender. [5] The scarcity of good quality water, the lack of wastewater treatment, the bombing of chemical infrastructures – all this jeopardises the quality of fresh water in a war. Moreover, according to the United Nations, one in four people in the world does not have access to drinking water, which is why water scarcity triggers armed conflicts around the world.[6] According to experts, water conflicts can be categorised into three groups: i) water acts as a “trigger” for conflict, where violence is associated with disputes over access to and control of water; ii) but also as a “weapon” of conflict, where water is used as an arsenal, including the use of dams that hold back water or flood communities downstream; iii) and as a “target” of conflict, where water resources or treatment facilities are the targets of attack. [7]

The world watched in amazement as the Kakhovka dam (in the Kherson region) was destroyed, causing catastrophic flooding and submerging thousands of hectares of land. This was condemned by the EU as an act of “ecocide”,[8] a term that arose during the Vietnam War to translate severe environmental destruction, and which has even mobilised Pope Francis to recognise it internationally as a crime against peace.[9] This concept is also reflected in recital 21 of Directive 2024/1203 of 11 April 2024 on the protection of the environment through criminal law, which punishes conduct comparable to “ecocide”.[10]   However, in Ukraine the situation is aggravated because a significant part of the territory is contaminated with landmines and explosive ammunition. The moving water caused by the flood poses additional and unpredictable dangers, as it can dislodge projectiles and move them into areas previously assessed as safe. The destruction of the dam resulted in falling water levels, affecting access to cooling water, which is critical for the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, putting its nuclear safety and security systems at risk.[11]

Moreover, the scenario of a nuclear conflict has once again come to the fore, with all the risks that this entails. According to a survey carried out by the University of Cambridge of UK and US citizens in 2023, individuals’ understanding of the global catastrophic risks associated with nuclear weapons is low. [12] A small percentage of respondents revealed that they had a good understanding of the phenomenon: 3.2 % of respondents in the United Kingdom and 7.6 % of respondents in the United States. And the most dramatic thing is that political elites seem to know only slightly more about the problem than the general public. Although the scenarios of a nuclear war are debatable and the hypothesis of a “nuclear winter” does not meet with the consensus of the scientific community, [13] what is certain is that if individuals are not aware of the risks involved – especially the difficulty of controlling the escalation of the confrontation once the first bomb is dropped – they may be more willing to support policies and compromises that could ultimately jeopardise the survival of humanity. This is why the award of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo – a Japanese organisation set up by survivors of the atomic bombings during the Second World War – is so emblematic in this day and age. [14]

In any case, war is also an issue of sustainability because it hinders the ecological transition and the fight against fossil fuel interests. War affects the mobilisation of economic resources and redefines environmental investment strategies.  And there is no point in having the illusion of removing economic power from the environmental equation – that would be a discourse out of touch with reality, an utterly misplaced pretence. Moreover, the European Green Deal strategy only went ahead in 2019 because the EU decided to support the necessary transition in all sectors of the economy. Achieving a circular and climate-neutral economy requires the full mobilisation of the industrial sector. It takes 25 years – a generation – to transform an industrial sector and its value chains. That is why the European Commission is committed to ensuring that economic power is convinced that it is possible to maintain well-being and create wealth without compromising the environment. And that there are benefits for everyone in this strategy, since half of the world’s gross domestic product depends on nature, especially in the construction, agriculture, food and drink sectors – around 40 trillion euros.[15] However, the war jeopardises the ecological transition, because priorities are re-evaluated, and the environment ends up being neglected.

But if peace is not just the absence of war, as Kant claimed, then what is it? It is a strategy of orderly coexistence between human beings, which allows them not only to decode the world as it is, but above all to persist in the sense of how it should be. Peace presupposes the continuous and persistent exercise of “submitting power to the law”, curbing the natural tendency of power to expand and operate arbitrarily (not just political power, but any power). Since the liberal revolutions of the 18^th century, we have called this submission of power to the law the rule of law. It also has one quality: it is a democratic rule of law which means that it seeks legitimacy in the popular participation – which, in any case, is not confined to election periods, as it encompasses the ongoing vigilance over the exercise of power by alert and well-informed citizens. And it is this dialectical relationship between the rule of law and democracy that populists tend to undermine when they take power, based on the fallacious idea that the will of majority is above the institutions… No, it is not and should not be.

In the absence of the rule of law, democracy becomes the tyranny of the majority who happen to be in power. Moreover, doctrine has pointed out the environmental deficits of representative democracy, because democracy has a difficult time adapting to timeless problems and taking on long-term responsibilities. There is a structural discrepancy between short-term government and democratic responsibility for long-term environmental problems.[16] Democracy would be “unsustainable” in this sense. This is because the interests of future generations currently projected have no direct representative in the process of forming democratic will – since they do not vote, they do not count… And individuals gathered in a democratic society tend to demand that their immediate problems be solved – preferably “yesterday”. And who do they demand it from? From political parties that need to win elections – bringing necessity and desire together.

In any case, the democratic rule of law is the best we have managed to come up with in terms of collective coexistence. And even with all their weaknesses and vicissitudes, free and democratic societies are those that allow individuals not just to represent the world – but to mould the world they want. With the philosophical approach of “Perpetual Peace”, Kant demonstrates that human beings must endure a contradiction. But what contradiction? The one between the high moral demands they place on themselves and society (on the one hand), and the realisation that they will never be able to fully satisfy those demands (on the other).[17] This is the great absurdity of existence (as Albert Camus would say). But what is the alternative in individual and collective terms, if not to grasp existence with the confidence that we can do more and better?

^[1] See https://greenfest.pt/?lang=en.

^[2] See Paulo Márcio Cruz and Gabriel Real Ferrer, “Direito, sustentabilidade e a premissa tecnológica como ampliação de seus fundamentos”, in Sustentabilidade tecnológica: o papel das tecnologias digitais na promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável (edição comemorativa de uma década do Mestrado em Direito da União europeia da UMinho), ed. Alessandra Silveira, Joana Abreu, Larissa Coelho (Braga: Pensamento Sábio – Associação para o conhecimento e inovação e Escola de Direito da Universidade do Minho, 2020), available at: https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/66584/3/Sustentabilidade%20Tecnologica_Edicao%20Comemorativa%20MDUE.pdf.

^[3] See Alessandra Silveira and Pedro Froufe, «Editorial of September 2022 – The (near) future of the European Union: Remarks on the “State of the Union”» Thinking & Debating Europe (UNIO – EU law jornal), 14 September 2022, available at https://officialblogofunio.com/2022/09/22/editorial-of-september-2022/; Alessandra Silveira, Pedro Froufe, Carlos Abreu Amorim, Joana Covelo Abreu and Tiago Sérgio Cabral, «Editorial of July 2022 – “European bloc” vs. “European network” – on the enlargement of the EU», Thinking & Debating Europe (UNIO – EU law jornal), 8 July 2022, available at: https://officialblogofunio.com/2022/07/08/editorial-of-july-2022/; Pedro Froufe, “Editorial of March 2022 – Europe and war”, Thinking & Debating Europe (UNIO – EU law jornal), 9 March 2022, available at https://officialblogofunio.com/2022/03/09/editorial-of-march-2022/.

^[4] See European Parliament, “MEPs to debate EU economic security amid geopolitical tensions”, Briefing, 7 December 2023, available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/agenda/briefing/2023-12-11/11/meps-to-debate-eu-economic-security-amid-geopolitical-tensions.

^[5] See RTP, «UE denuncia uso da água como “arma de guerra” pela Rússia», 22 March 2022, available at: https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/mundo/ue-denuncia-uso-da-agua-como-arma-de-guerra-pela-russia_n1393278.

^[6] See Euronews, “ONU: uma em cada quatro pessoas sem acesso a água potável”, 22 March 2023, available at. https://pt.euronews.com/green/2023/03/22/onu-uma-em-cada-quatro-pessoas-sem-acesso-a-agua-potavel.

^[7]See Sandy Milne, “How water shortages are brewing wars”, BBC, 17 August 2021, available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210816-how-water-shortages-are-brewing-wars.

^[8] See Delegation of the European Union to the International Organisations in Vienna, Special Economic and Environmental Committee Meeting Vienna, 19 June 2023, 23 June 2023, available at: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vienna-international-organisations/special-economic-and-environmental-committee-meeting-vienna-19-june-2023_en.

^[9]See Vatican News, “Bélgica acrescenta o crime de ecocídio no Código Penal”, 10 November 2022, available at: https://www.vaticannews.va/pt/mundo/news/2022-11/belgica-acrescenta-crime-ecocidio-codigo-penal-10-20-anos-prisao.html.

^[10]See Directive (EU) 2024/1203 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on the protection of the environment through criminal law and replacing Directives 2008/99/EC and 2009/123/EC, 30.4.2024, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32024L1203.

^[11] See European Parliament, “At a Glance – Russia’s war on Ukraine: High environmental toll”, EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service. Author: Gabija Leclerc, Members’ Research Service PE 751.427, July 2023, available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2023/751427/EPRS_ATA(2023)751427_EN.pdf.

[12] See Paul Ingram, “Public awareness of nuclear winter and implications for escalation control”, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, 14 February 2023, available at: https://www.cser.ac.uk/resources/public-awareness-nuclear-winter-and-implications-escalation-control/.

[13] See Lili Xia, et al., “Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection”, Nature Food 3, 586–596 (2022).

[14] United Nations News, “Guterres salutes Japanese anti-nuclear group on Nobel Peace Prize win”, 11 October 2024, available at: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1155606.

^[15] See Alessandra Silveira, “Estado de direito e metamorfose do mundo (a propósito do Pacto Ecológico Europeu)”, in E-book of the VI Seminário Internacional Hispano-Luso-Brasileiro sobre Direitos Fundamentais e Políticas Públicas, ed. Rogério Gesta Leal, Carlos Aymerich Cano, Alessandra Silveira (São Paulo: Editora Dialética, 2022), ISBN 978-65-252-4661-1.

^[16] See J. J. Gomes Canotilho, Um romance de cultura e de ciência para reforçar a sustentabilidade democrática, Boletim da Faculdade de Direito, vol. LXXXVIII, tomo I (Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 2012).

^[17] See “Kant: a experiência da liberdade”, available at: https://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p46267.

Picture credits: Photo by Singkham on Pexels.com.