Research: New research published in Nature has demonstrated that thermally embedding compostable plastics with enzymes significantly accelerates their degradation in marine environments. These plastics achieved rapid biodegradation in coastal seawater and near-complete biodegradation in 5 months at a deep sea depth of 757m. At a depth of 5,503m, moderate biodegradation was observed. Plastic pollution is a persistent and growing problem. This could represent a potential solution to marine plastic pollution, especially in hard-to-reach environments.
Policy: The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) made the circular economy a key policy priority to meet biodiversity goals. A Roundtable on Circular Economy for Nature at CBD COP17 examined how circular economy instruments can help address and reverse nature loss while contributing to the achievement of global biodiversity targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Solutions shared included resource-efficient and cleaner production technologies being advanced in Armenian eco-industrial parks, helping industry reduce environmental impacts while improving competitiveness and efforts in Kyrgyzstan to improve sustainable resource use through expanding recycling infrastructure, EPR and the reuse of agricultural by-products.
Action This 💡
Treat nature loss as a materials problem, because largely it is one. Extracting and processing crops and timber drives around 90% of land-related biodiversity loss, so the strongest nature lever most companies control is using less virgin material and more secondary material.
- Cut virgin demand: use less material, design for reuse and incorporate recycled content.
- Map your highest-volume virgin materials to where they are grown or mined, and verify their deforestation- and conversion-free status.
- Before any material substitution, assess impacts beyond carbon, including land use, water use and pollution: replacing plastic with virgin fibre may move the pressure but doesn’t necessarily remove it.
Colombia: Conflict, Climate and the Law on Environmental Displacement
Colombia has recognised individuals displaced by environmental factors. Enacted in May 2026, Law 2577 is the first law of its kind in Latin America, and one of the first nationally binding frameworks in the world.
However, Colombia is not high up in the rankings of countries facing disaster-related internal displacements worldwide. In 2025, China recorded approximately 3.5 million disaster-related internal displacements, compared with 88,000 in Colombia.
So why has Colombia moved so early? Is it a case of forward planning or are there other factors at play?
A country shaped by displacement
Colombia is experiencing a displacement crisis due to the country’s extensive history of armed conflict. In response, the country has developed an impressive framework of legislation. This includes the pioneering Law 387 passed in 1997, enshrining the rights of victims of forced displacement and the Victims and Land Restitution Law (Law 1448) enacted in 2011, recognising the victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition.
At the centre of Law 1448 sits the Single Registry of Victims (RUV), a tool used by the Unit for the Attention and Integral Reparation of Victims (UARIV) to record the victims’ details. Categories in the registry include forced displacement, sexual violence and homicide, and it exists to assist the Government in designing targeted, evidence-based public policies. As at 14 October 2026, the registry identifies 10,357,896 victims cumulatively, the largest proportion of which are those internally displaced; 9,231,020. The RUV is one of the most comprehensive systems in the world; the World Bank describes the victim-registration process as a "model for reparation processes elsewhere".
It must be noted that Law 1448 may play down state responsibility for the human rights crisis. However, such a comprehensive legal framework to identify victims of internal displacement may have provided valuable institutional experience and a foundation for the development of environment-related displacement law.
The evolution of climate displacement law
A major development in this area was Judgement T-123 of 2024. A Colombian campesino couple brought a tutela action against the UARIV. A tutela action enables individuals to seek immediate protection, existing to protect constitutional, fundamental rights when they are violated/threatened. The couple alleged that the organisation failed to respond substantively to their request to be recognised in the RUV, as victims of internal displacement due to environmental factors. The couple were displaced due to repeated flooding around the Bojabá river and claimed that their fundamental rights had been violated.
While the Court did not order the UARIV to recognise the couple or similar victims, it urged Congress to develop a "comprehensive regulatory framework" to address this "constitutional protection deficit". The Court also ordered the local authority to provide immediate relief to the couple.
The resulting law (Law 2577) was enacted in May 2026. The law recognises internal forced displacement associated with climate change, environmental degradation and natural disasters. It also provides for the establishment of a separate registry for forcibly displaced individuals due to environmental factors, the Single Register of Environmental Displacement (RUD) administered by the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD). Article 3 gives UNGRD eight months from promulgation to design, establish and operationalise the registry.
The evolution of climate-related law in Colombia suggests that the conflict-related internal displacement framework has provided an important stepping stone in the recognition of those internally displaced due to environmental factors. The two concepts are intertwined and, to ensure effective humanitarian protection for citizens of Colombia, the Government, local authorities and other organisations need to consider them in tandem.
Chocó: doble afectación
In Chocó, in the north west of Colombia, we can see the effects of environmental disasters and armed conflict compounding; its residents are suffering from both confinement and displacement.
The region has experienced decades of conflict and, as a result, many of the people in the predominantly Afro-Colombian population have suffered large-scale confinement; 36,288 of the total 88,874 confined persons in the whole of Colombia are residents of Chocó as of March 2025. Chocó was also heavily affected by flood displacements, with 10,300 flood-related displacements in 2025.
Colombians are experiencing both conflict and environment-related displacement. This phenomenon is so common that it is referred to locally as ‘doble afectación’ or ‘doubly affected’. This is because, as one of the most hazard-prone countries in Latin America, families in Colombia are often forced to live in areas at high risk of natural disasters and of the effects of climate change, such as informal urban settlements and remote, rural areas.
Such an experience is common in Chocó. El País covered the story of Mario Suárez and his family, documenting their displacement from Bajo San Juan due to non-state armed groups, their arrival in Buenaventura, and the destruction of their home by the August 2026 earthquake. In his own words, Mario notes "we arrived in Buenaventura with nothing, and today we’re back to having nothing."
How are the existing legal frameworks in Colombia helping those suffering in Chocó? In 2025, the RUV identified 221,030 people in the Development Programmes with a Territorial Focus (PDET) municipalities (areas particularly affected by armed conflict) and there was a particular concentration in a few areas including Chocó. The majority fell into the categories of forced displacement, confinement, and threats. This information was used by the UARIV to deliver aid measures and immediate humanitarian attention to 45,473 households in vulnerable conditions, and, a total of COP 2.5 trillion in victim compensation; COP 1 trillion directly benefited 105,062 people residing in PDET municipalities.
The RUV evidently serves as a useful tool for the victims of conflict-related displacement in the department. However, as the RUD is still within its statutory implementation period, it is not clear whether it will be effective in protecting individuals from environment-related displacement, particularly where it overlaps with conflict-related displacement.
What next?
Colombia’s experience with conflict-related internal displacement may have laid the groundwork for its emerging legal framework on environmental displacement. The question remains: can Colombia translate this institutional experience into effective protection for people displaced by environmental factors, particularly where environmental hazards and armed conflict intersect?
Anjali Vaz is a 2.8 PQE Disputes lawyer, with experience in litigation, data protection and refugee and asylum law, and an interest in the climate refugee space.
Smart Picks 🧠
Climate Refugees: No Roof No Rights by François-Xavier Trégan - a powerful documentary following the story of climate refugees, who are not protected under international law, across the world. From 26m in 2023, climate refugees, now outnumbering refugees from conflicts, could rise to more than 220m by 2050, according to World Bank estimates. On the front line of climate change, countries are trying to fill this legal void. Watch it below - for free.
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