The Climate Action Network (CAN), a global network of over 1,900 civil society organisations (CSOs) in over 130 countries working to combat climate change and promote climate justice, has condemned the U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran, while calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
The group described the attacks as “an illegal act of aggression that violates international law, Iran’s sovereignty, the fundamental human rights protections it is meant to uphold and risks dragging an already devastated region into a wider war”.
CAN lamented that the normalisation of civilian death in the Gaza genocide is now spilling out across the region, adding that the bombing of a girls’ school in Minab, killing more than 160 civilians, “is a crime that should shock the conscience of the world”.
It maintained that civilian infrastructure – schools, hospitals, homes and cultural sites – must never be targeted in war.
CAN added: “The attacks on Iran’s oil storage facilities have unleashed massive health and environmental harm. Burning fuel depots poison air, land, water and lungs that will linger in the atmosphere long after the bombing stops. This meets the criteria for Ecocide. Corporations, financial institutions and the arms industry form part of the same fossil-fuelled war economy that profits from destruction while also accelerating climate breakdown.
“Across the Global South – from Asia and Africa to the Caribbean – are also paying the price of this expansion of violence and are vulnerable to unilateral attacks on their sovereignty by Imperialist interests. Escalating wars over resources, territory and power deepen global inequality and existing hardships.
“Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon are another alarming sign of the widening conflict across the region. Strikes have continued despite ceasefire agreements, displacing civilians in southern Lebanon and illustrating how the conflict is spreading. The use of white phosphorus and other weapons harming civilians and the environment underscores the devastating human and ecological costs of this escalation.
“Climate justice cannot exist in a world where war and impunity are allowed to expand unchecked.
“We will not remain silent in the face of this aggression. We demand that the U.S. and Israeli governments be held accountable for these unlawful attacks, for the war crimes committed against civilians, and for violating the international legal order that prohibits unilateral attacks on sovereign states.
“Governments must act now to prevent the expansion of this conflict and the further loss of life – including refusing to participate in the aggression, imposing an immediate arms embargo on the aggressors and those enabling the war economy, and ensuring that those responsible are held to account under international law.
“Climate Action Network stands in solidarity with people in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon and across the region – and with all those around the world defending peace, human rights, democratic freedoms and dignity, and demanding an end to occupation, aggression and impunity.
“The same system that fuels these wars is the one driving the climate crisis. Ending one requires confronting the other.
“An immediate and permanent ceasefire is the only path forward.
“Diplomacy must replace war and international law must prevail – because climate justice cannot be built in a world at war.”