Israel's war on Lebanon threatens climate goals, minister says

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Lebanon’s climate targets are being threatened by the environmental destruction wrought by Israel's military campaigns and occupation of the south, Tamara El Zein, Lebanon's…

Lebanon’s climate targets are being threatened by the environmental destruction wrought by Israel's military campaigns and occupation of the south, Tamara El Zein, Lebanon's Environment Minister, has said.

“If we don't take environmental recovery into consideration, some of our targets will not be reached,” Ms El Zein told The National in an interview at the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is to address the talks on Thursday.

Years of Israeli warfare have left farmland unusable, destroyed crops, forests and marine life, contaminated soil with phosphorus, and released toxins into the air over wide areas, said a report this year by Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research. In its foreword, Ms El Zein said the damage was an “act of ecocide”.

While some tree cover might be lost to forest fires in any year, the losses have multiplied as a result of Israeli attacks since 2023, Ms El Zein told The National in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, as heads of state gathered for the annual climate summit.

“From October 2023 until September 2026, we have already lost 16,000 hectares – completely burnt because of phosphorus bombardment or traditional munitions,” she said. Ms El Zein said a loss of 1,500ha a year would be more typical.

Alongside the burning of forest cover, which acts as a natural carbon sink and can help to reduce emissions, Ms El Zein said the uprooting of trees in Israeli operations and the spraying of glyphosate, a controversial herbicide, over areas of southern Lebanon were causing great damage to the environment.

The Israeli occupation also makes it difficult to monitor and fix environmental damage. “We cannot reach all the areas because it is still occupied by the Israeli army,” said Ms El Zein, a physical chemist by training.

In aiming to meet its climate commitments, “Lebanon is not going from the baseline zero,” but from “minus, minus, minus", she added.

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