As climate protection measures become more talked about and gain more adoption, the divide between richer countries and the ones still in development could not be more obvious.
While richer countries have the possibility to dedicate significant amounts of money to pollution reduction, it is hard to justify this in a developing country, where a coal power plant could provide electricity to a small region. Yes, burning coal will pollute, but getting out of poverty will improve lives at an accelerated pace, thus bringing more good overall to that region, compared to the negative impact extra pollution will bring to the world.
With that in mind, it seems inevitable that our future will have eco wars in store for us. The Netherlands might be very climate focused, taking measures to reduce it's footprint, sign international agreements 1 that most countries will probably commit too, but not everybody will be as willing to follow the same rules. Belgium might not be on board with the same rule set as the Netherlands, and as pollution knows no borders, such will be the start of the first hypothetical eco war.
Other than pure material interest, political ideologies will also have a very strong effect on the route countries take, with the clear divide between left being greener while right is more economically inclined.
There are ample example of eco terrorism 2, but when will we see the first war fought on this premise? Will this be in our lifetime?