Military emissions

Europe’s defence spending is on the rise, its military emissions set to follow. In this guest post, Hannah Huibregtsen examines the 82% gap in EU military emissions reporting and argues that without it, the EU risks undermining both its climate goals and long-term security.

Rapid rises in global military spending threaten climate action, undermining our collective security, this post highlights the findings of a new joint paper that explores how everything from direct emissions to diverted climate finance are threatening SDG 13 on Climate action.

In many ways, peace and security had never enjoyed a higher profile than they did at COP29 in Baku and yet developed countries failed fragile and conflict-affected states. In this post Ellie Kinney takes stock of what happened at COP29 and looks ahead to COP30 next year.

World leaders, negotiators, and civil society are heading to Baku for what its Azerbaijani hosts have labelled the “COP of Peace”. Set against the backdrop of an increasingly unpeaceful world, and the urgent need for states to agree on a new climate finance goal, Ellie Kinney explores what we can expect on militarism, conflict and climate at COP29.

In this post Doug Weir examines whether framing the climate crisis primarily as a security threat slowed the growth of the partnerships and public consent needed to support rapid military decarbonisation.

COP28 agreed that countries must submit new NDCs by February 2025. These national plans for climate action are important but at present military emissions are largely absent from them. As Linsey Cottrell finds, failing to include them this year could delay their inclusion until 2030.

Ahead of arriving in Dubai for COP28, Ellie Kinney outlines the key topics and trends at the intersection between climate change, conflicts and peace. As global military emissions rise, and with new and protracted conflicts capturing international attention, how is this impacting climate diplomacy?

The European Parliament has called for the closure of the military emissions gap ahead of COP28 after three amendments on military emissions reporting and decarbonisation were included in its annual climate summit resolution.

The UK government has responded to the House of Commons Defence Committee report on Defence and Climate Change. Linsey Cottrell analyses the key points made, remaining gaps and the road ahead for reducing the UK’s military greenhouse gas emissions.

NATO’s Vilnius summit saw the publication of three new documents on climate action, including its long-awaited Greenhouse Gases Emission Mapping and Analytical Methodology. In this post, Ellie Kinney examines the summit’s climate outputs and their context.

The IPCC’s failure to mention military or conflict emissions in its recent synthesis report points to a deeper problem. Ellie Kinney explains why solving it will require a concerted effort from states, researchers and civil society.

Ellie Kinney explores how liberal and conservative MEPs blocked an initiative that would have contributed towards improving European military emissions reporting in the run up to COP27.

As the impact of the climate crisis continues to grow, rapid emissions cuts are becoming ever more urgent. Our new report finds that militaries may be responsible for 5.5% of global emissions – a proportion so great that it can no longer be ignored.

Ellie Kinney explains why we have launched a new campaign ahead of COP27 urging NATO to come clean on its military emissions reporting.