Executive Overview
In a detailed submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Palestinian Authority (PA) has revealed a critical yet frequently overlooked consequence of the military hostilities in Gaza: the systemic obliteration of the enclave’s climate adaptation infrastructure. The 91-page report—forming Palestine’s third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)—presents a detailed assessment of how the destruction of physical infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public utilities has stripped more than two million residents of their capacity to endure extreme weather events, heatwaves, drought, and climate-induced epidemics.
While atmospheric climate change operates on global timelines, a population’s ability to survive its manifestations relies entirely on local infrastructure. Palestine’s third NDC emphasizes a core premise: while armed hostilities do not directly dictate global atmospheric physics, the systemic destruction of municipal water systems, sanitation infrastructure, energy grids, healthcare facilities, and agricultural land effectively destroys the protective barrier between human populations and a rapidly warming planet.
As extreme heat events become more frequent and intense across the Eastern Mediterranean, the loss of basic civic infrastructure has turned severe weather into a life-threatening hazard. Gaza’s population, forced into dense informal settlements with minimal access to potable water or functional sanitation, now faces the dual threat of active military operations and severe environmental hazards.
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| GAZA CLIMATE VULNERABILITY MATRIX |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Adaptive Infrastructure Damaged | Direct Climate & Environmental Impact |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Solar Microgrids & Power Lines | Zero grid cooling; heat-stroke mortality |
| Desalination & Sewage Plants | Aquifer contamination; waterborne pathogens |
| Agricultural Topsoil & Orchards | Soil salinization; severe food insecurity |
| Healthcare & Emergency Response | Inability to manage climate-driven outbreaks |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+Detailed Chronology: The Erosion of Gaza’s Environmental Defenses
Pre-Conflict Vulnerability (Prior to October 2023)
For decades, the Gaza Strip has been recognized by climate scientists as an environmental hotspot. Situated in a semi-arid zone within the Mediterranean basin, the enclave experiences warming rates significantly higher than the global average. Prior to October 2023, the Palestinian Authority, alongside international development agencies, pursued targeted climate adaptation strategies under Palestine’s first (2016) and second (2021) NDCs.
These initiatives focused on building climate resilience through specific, localized measures:
- Decentralized Solar Energy: Installing rooftop photovoltaics on hospitals, schools, and water treatment plants to offset chronic electricity shortages.
- Aquifer Recovery Projects: Constructing central wastewater treatment facilities to process municipal sewage and allow for artificial recharge of the over-extracted coastal aquifer.
- Desalination Expansion: Expanding short-term low-volume desalination plants to deliver safe drinking water to an urban population facing near-total salinization of local groundwater.
- Urban Greening & Agricultural Resilience: Planting drought-tolerant crops and establishing green buffers to reduce the urban heat island effect and combat soil erosion.
The Hostilities and Cumulative Infrastructure Collapse (October 2023 – Mid-2024)
Following the outbreak of intense bombardment and ground operations in October 2023, these climate-resilience systems experienced widespread degradation:
- Late 2023: Initial strikes and energy cuts paralyzed the main power station and severed external electricity lines. Decentralized rooftop solar systems—the primary backstop for water pumps and clinic refrigeration—suffered heavy damage during urban operations.
- Early 2024: Fuel shortages combined with direct structural damage forced major wastewater treatment plants, including those in central and southern Gaza, to suspend operations. Millions of liters of untreated municipal sewage began flowing daily into streets, rainwater drainage channels, and the Mediterranean Sea.
- Mid-2024: Protracted military maneuvers severely disrupted solid waste management. Municipal fleets were rendered non-operational, leading to the accumulation of hundreds of thousands of tons of uncollected solid waste in close proximity to temporary displacement camps.
Submission of the Third NDC (Late 2024)
Palestine formally uploaded its third NDC to the UN Climate Secretariat. The 91-page document shifted the conventional focus of climate planning from future target projections to an urgent assessment of loss, damage, and structural vulnerability created by armed conflict.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Structural Breakdown and Environmental Hazards
The Palestinian Authority’s climate report outlines how the destruction of physical assets directly correlates with increased climate risk. The capacity of a society to absorb climate shocks depends on the resilience of its infrastructure; when that infrastructure is destroyed, environmental exposures turn into acute human health emergencies.
Infrastructure Degradation vs. Climate Impact Pipeline:
[ Infrastructure Destruction ]
│
├──► Loss of Power Grids & Solar Systems ───► Inability to Run Cooling Systems ──► Acute Heat Stress
│
├──► Breakdown of Sewage Facilities ───────► Aquifer Contamination ───────────► Waterborne Outbreaks
│
└──► Ruin of Healthcare Infrastructure ───► Loss of Disease Mitigation ────────► High Mortality RatesWater & Sanitation Systems
Water management is central to climate adaptation in arid zones. The destruction of Gaza’s water sector has largely eliminated its adaptive baseline:
- Aquifer Degradation: Gaza’s primary natural water source, the Coastal Aquifer Management Scheme, was already severely over-extracted. The failure of wastewater treatment plants has allowed untreated domestic waste to leach into shallow groundwater layers, elevating nitrate and pathogen concentrations to critical levels.
- Per Capita Availability: Daily access to clean water fell well below the World Health Organization’s emergency minimum standard of 15 liters per person per day for drinking, cooking, and hygiene, dropping to under 3 to 5 liters in high-density displacement zones during peak periods of conflict.
- Desalination Capacity: The targeted damage to supply lines, coupled with a lack of spare parts and electricity, reduced operational capacity across Gaza’s major desalination plants to a fraction of pre-war levels.
Energy Grid Deficits and Microclimate Extremes
The complete loss of centralized power forced reliance on localized, climate-vulnerable solutions:
- Destruction of Photovoltaic Capacity: Pre-conflict Gaza maintained one of the world’s highest densities of rooftop solar power per capita—a necessity driven by chronic fuel import restrictions. The destruction of public, commercial, and residential structures eliminated a significant portion of this renewable capacity, crippling the decentralized power required to pump emergency water or preserve heat-sensitive medical supplies.
- Amplified Heat Islands: Dense, makeshift canvas and plastic shelter structures in urban areas create extreme localized thermal environments. Internal tent temperatures during summer heatwaves regularly exceed 45°C (113°F), while the lack of powered ventilation prevents passive cooling.
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| ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT METRICS SUMMARY |
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| Parameter | Status Post-October 2023 |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+
| Untreated Sewage Discharge | >100,000 cubic meters daily into marine/urban areas|
| Solid Waste Accumulation | Estimated >330,000 tons accumulating in cities |
| Arable Land Degradation | Over 40-50% of agricultural soil damaged or salted |
| Potable Water Availability | Reduced by up to 80-90% in primary impact zones |
+------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+Land Degradation, Toxic Debris, and Agricultural Loss
Climate adaptation relies heavily on land conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. The report notes severe environmental damage across agricultural zones:
- Topsoil Compacting and Salinization: The movement of heavy armored vehicles, combined with unexploded ordnance and chemical contamination, has altered the physical structure of arable soils in Northern and Eastern Gaza.
- Loss of Agricultural Canopy: Olive groves and citrus orchards, which served as vital carbon sinks and provided natural windbreaks against soil erosion, experienced widespread clearing. This loss of vegetation accelerates topsoil loss, exacerbates dust storms, and increases localized thermal radiation.
- Toxic Debris Management: An estimated 40 million metric tons of war debris—much of it contaminated with unexploded ordnance, asbestos, heavy metals, and industrial residues—remains scattered across urban zones, creating long-term environmental hazards that complicate future land reclamation.
Official Statements and Policy Frameworks
The submission of the third NDC presents a clear institutional and legal assessment of the intersection between international humanitarian law, international climate frameworks, and environmental governance.
The Palestinian Authority’s Position
In the core narrative of the third NDC, the Palestinian Ministry of State for Change and Environmental Affairs articulates the link between conflict and climate vulnerability:
"The aggression on the Gaza Strip did not make the climate worse; it removed the housing, water and sanitation systems, health facilities, energy networks, roads and livelihoods through which people absorb a climate they were already struggling with."
The document further emphasizes that conventional climate adaptation frameworks assume a baseline level of state sovereign control over natural resources—a baseline that does not exist in the occupied territories:
"Climate resilience cannot be built in a vacuum. When basic municipal infrastructure is systematically dismantled, the term ‘adaptation’ loses its traditional technical meaning. For Gaza, adaptation has shifted from a planning exercise for future decarbonization to an immediate struggle for biological survival against escalating environmental hazards."
Implications for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The Palestinian submission challenges the international climate finance architecture, specifically regarding how conflict-affected regions access mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Loss and Damage Fund established at COP27 and COP28:
- Access Barriers: Standard UNFCCC mechanisms require stable governance structures, clear land tenure, and rigorous monitoring and verification capabilities to disburse climate adaptation grants. The physical destruction of state institutions in Gaza severely complicates access to these international resources.
- Redefining ‘Loss and Damage’: The report argues that the Loss and Damage framework must officially recognize climate vulnerability amplified by armed conflict. It asserts that military actions which destroy environmental protection infrastructure directly contribute to human loss and environmental degradation, warranting specialized compensation and recovery funding mechanisms.
Future Outlook: Rebuilding Resilience in a Scorched Landscape
The path toward re-establishing climate resilience in Gaza presents severe technical, financial, and political challenges. Rebuilding basic infrastructure will require integrating modern climate-proofing standards into every phase of post-conflict recovery.
RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE ROADMAP
│
├── Phase 1: Immediate Environmental Stabilization (0 - 12 Months)
│ ├── Safe removal of toxic debris and unexploded ordnance
│ ├── Emergency repairs to primary sewage outfalls to prevent disease
│ └── Installation of mobile, solar-powered emergency water purification units
│
├── Phase 2: Reconstruction of Essential Utilities (1 - 3 Years)
│ ├── Rebuilding central wastewater treatment facilities with climate-hardened designs
│ ├── Restoration of the decentralized solar grid on public buildings
│ └── Soil remediation and agricultural topsoil rehabilitation
│
└── Phase 3: Strategic Climate Adaptation Integration (3 - 10 Years)
├── Construction of advanced coastal protection systems against sea-level rise
├── Deep-aquifer recharge projects using tertiary-treated wastewater
└── Complete modernization of municipal waste recycling and energy recoveryLong-Term Environmental Hazards
Even if hostilities were to cease immediately, the environmental impact of the conflict will destabilize Gaza’s climate adaptation efforts for decades:
- Irreversible Aquifer Damage: Ongoing seawater intrusion, combined with the infiltration of toxic industrial runoffs and untreated sewage into the coastal aquifer, threatens to render the region’s sole natural underground freshwater source permanently unusable without high-cost chemical treatment.
- Public Health Pressures: The combination of elevated mean temperatures and degraded sanitation creates conditions for endemic climate-sensitive diseases. Outbreaks of Hepatitis A, severe diarrheal diseases, and vector-borne infections are likely to persist as summer temperatures continue to rise annually.
- Loss of Human Capital: The displacement and loss of civil engineers, environmental researchers, municipal technicians, and public health officials have severely degraded the local knowledge base needed to plan and execute complex climate adaptation projects.
Strategic Imperatives for International Intervention
To prevent Gaza from becoming a permanently uninhabitable zone driven by compound climate and human-made crises, international experts and the authors of the NDC emphasize several immediate requirements:
- Integrated Infrastructure Reconstruction: Emergency rebuild efforts must prioritize climate-resilient designs. Power generation should focus on resilient, distributed renewable microgrids rather than centralized fossil-fuel power lines vulnerable to single-point failures.
- Environmental Remediation Funding: International donors must recognize environmental remediation—such as asbestos abatement, soil de-mining, heavy metal decontamination, and wastewater plant restoration—as prerequisite components of any climate adaptation fund allocation for the region.
- Resource Access Protections: Guaranteeing unimpeded access to critical materials required for environmental protection, such as desalination chemicals, replacement piping, solar panels, and water pumps, remains essential for any long-term climate resilience strategy.
The findings presented in Palestine’s third NDC highlight a critical reality for international climate policy: in modern conflicts, the destruction of basic civic infrastructure removes a population’s essential defenses against a severe and changing climate. Without dedicated intervention to rebuild these basic systems, Gaza will remain profoundly vulnerable to the growing threats of a warming world.
