IPPNW calls for mandatory and transparent publication

“According to a new study, CO2 emissions from the military are responsible for around 5.5 percent of global emissions. If the global military were a country, it would have the fourth largest carbon footprint in the world – larger than that of Russia. On the occasion of the report published yesterday by “Scientists for Global Responsibility” (SGR) and “Conflict and Environment Observatory” (CEOBS), the medical peace organization IPPNW calls on the German government to advocate for a special report and an assessment of the climate impact of war and the military at the climate conference. “The fact that one of the most important contributors to the climate crisis is being left out of the official negotiations and that countries are not obliged to disclose the emissions of their military and arms industry is unacceptable,” emphasizes Dr. Angelika Claußen, Chairwoman of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. According to the report, a lot of data is not collected in the first place or is not published transparently. This creates a significant gap that makes the fight against the climate crisis much more difficult. “The interesting thing about the CEOBS and SGR report is that the calculations only refer to “peacetime”. Ongoing conflicts and wars are omitted due to insufficient data. This means that the direct effects of warfare, such as fires in oil depots and forests, damage to (fossil fuel) infrastructure and ecosystems, as well as reconstruction and healthcare for survivors, were not even taken into account. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the calculated 5.5 percent is actually a very conservative estimate,” Claußen clarifies.* CO2 emissions from the military were excluded from climate agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 due to pressure from the USA. As a result, it is not yet a mandatory component and is neither consistently recorded nor transparently published. According to the report, this has hardly changed in recent years. …” You can find the entire report HERE


Climate killer war

Dr. Angelika Klaußen, Honorary Curator of the Munich Peace Conference, writes in the IPG Journal on 13.07.2022 about the direct climate impact of the war in Ukraine

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Further background information from IPPNW can be found HERE

US veterans and allies set up “watch tower” outside the UN to observe efforts to rein in military carbon emissions

A group of veterans join with local peace and environmental groups to press the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to establish rules for the reporting of military and conflict-related emissions under the Paris Agreement of COP21. Read more HERE