On 4 December 2025 the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court launched its Policy on Addressing Environmental Damage Through the Rome Statute . Through this Policy, the Office signals its determination to assist in preventing and addressing unlawful environmental harm by conducting focused investigations and prosecutions of Rome Statute crimes that have an environmental dimension, by supporting national efforts at accountability, and by fostering cooperation with civil society and corporate actors. The Office further aims to advance international jurisprudence and best practices to strengthen global accountability for crimes that affect the environment.
The ICC jurisdiction is limited. The Rome Statute primarily focuses on safeguarding the integrity of human life and property, and it makes only one express reference to the natural environment. Nevertheless, there are numerous provisions in the Rome Statute that may involve harm to both the natural environment and humans, and there are notable synergies between accountability for international crimes within the Court’s jurisdiction and preventing and mitigating environmental damage. Destroying, degrading, polluting, or otherwise altering the natural environment will often directly impact human life and human rights, such as by causing people to be displaced, inflicting great suffering or injury on victims, or even causing death.
The document also defines a number of new legal terms, as part of the path towards codifying the acts as crimes for ex.:
“Environmental crimes” are crimes in article 5 of the Rome Statute ( genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, the crime of aggression ), that are committed by means of or that result in environmental damage.
The term “Environmental damage” refers to any serious anthropogenic destruction, deterioration, or loss of the natural environment (For the purposes of thе Policy, “natural environment” refers to the Earth system as a whole, including Earth’s biosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.) , including the impact on the health and well-being of a particular ecosystem and its non-human inhabitants.