Campaigners call for countries to cut military emissions

Source: IPB

As COP 25 - the UN convention on climate change meets in Madrid, peace campaigners are calling for the impact of military activity on the environment to be assessed.

The International Peace Bureau has issued the following statement:

There are few activities on earth as environmentally catastrophic as waging war. One of the biggest culprits of burning oil is the military and, whenever and wherever there is a conflict or a major military exercise, the amount of oil burned increases also releasing an increased burden of smoke. War and militarism, and their associated 'carbon boot-prints', are severely accelerating climate change.

Regardless of what was learned about climate change through scientific research reports, little was done to include the contribution of the military to climate change or to reduce it. If we are serious on combating climate change, we need to make sure to count all carbon emissions, without having exemptions based on 'political inconvenience'.

The military's significant contribution to climate change has received little attention. According to a recent report from Brown University, the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than many industrialised nations like Sweden or Switzerland.

This "dirty game" of not including military emissions is over!

IPB stresses the COP25 to include the military in its climate action work and to adopt provisions covering military compliance. The COP25 must include military emissions in their calculations and the CO2 emissions laundering has to stop. It should also include a blueprint to reduce military emissions.

IPB urges the State Parties to the Paris Agreement to adjust its provision to military emissions, not leaving decisions up to nation states as to which national sectors should make emissions cuts.

IPB calls for an inclusion of military greenhouse gas emission into climate change regulations. Moreover, countries need to be obliged, without exemption, to cut military emissions and transparently report them.

IPB calls for more academic studies (in line with the study from Brown University report) and an IPCC or equal special report. The report needs to be a common project of academics and the civil society.

In November 2019 the IPB published an Information Paper on the 'the carbon boot-print' - 'The United States and European military's impact on climate change' by Jessica Fort and Philipp Straub

They write: 'The US military is not only the most funded army in the world, it is also "one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries". The Department of Defence's daily consumption alone is greater than the total national consumption of countries like Sweden, Switzerland or Chile. And the US has been continuously at war, or engaged in military actions, since late 2001.

War and militarism, and their associated 'carbon boot-prints', are severely accelerating climate change. However, the military's significant contribution to climate change has still received little attention. It is not only the US army that has a severe impact on climate change, Europe's military is also running its bases and its various operations and contributing to the rise in carbon emissions. However, obtaining accurate data about any form of military energy consumption is very difficult.'

The entire IPB Information Paper by Jessica Fort and Philipp Straub is available here:

www.ipb.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IPB-Information-Paper-the-carbon-boot-print-1.pdf