Abstract
"Climate change has per se an unusual macro scope and due to the diversity of human activities that have contributed to global warming, it requires a much more intense, close and long-term international cooperation between States to stabilize the Earth's climate system. The UN international climate change regime requires the reduction of the GHG emissions by the States Parties, being counterproductive and dangerous the exclusion of certain governmental areas and/or economic-social sectors due to the severity of the problem. Despite of the high number of States Parties to the international climate change regime and their formal commitment to reduce their GHG emissions, there is a human activity that has escaped from the national and international carbon footprint's scrutiny because of security reasons: the military sector. The first approach to address climate change problem by many Ministries of Defence has been to 'greening' themselves, by moving from fuel energy sources to more sustainable and renewables ones. This 'greening approach' implemented has been considered by critical voices as 'greenwashing', as a camouflage to obviate the debate about military activities' negative impact on the environment, in particular as they are an important source GHG emissions. And it is precisely conventional thinking when planning a national security strategy and when deciding a military operation that it is being challenged by climate change context and by obligations accepted by States through the UN international regime in this field. There is currently an unbalance relation between sustainability and the protection of the environment, on one hand, and the military sector, on the other side. Consequently, how the triad 'security', 'sustainability' and 'environment' can have a harmonious legal connection? Therefore, the aim of this research thesis is to develop legal arguments to determine how sustainability can be incorporated in the decision-making process of Ministries of Defence in order to comply the with the UN international climate change regime. In other words, the main objective is to determine how climate change obligations can be implemented into national security strategies and planning of military actions in a manner that is compatible/consistent with the rights and duties of States under public international law. A sustainable international peace and security is the leading idea guiding this research, with the general aim of looking for synergies between State's military actions with the international climate change regime.""