In spite of growing awareness among militaries of the need to reduce the environmental impact of their operations, whether domestically, during peacekeeping operations or during wartime, the environmental bootprint of military operations remains considerable. Of particular concern are greenhouse gas emissions, the legacy issues associated with military installations, as well as the exemptions from environmental oversight that militaries often enjoy. Read the military and the environment briefing.
Policy briefing exploring the UNFCCC’s military emissions reporting blind spot, how rising military spending is exacerbating the problem and what needs to be done to address it.
Policy briefing examining the intersection between militaries, armed conflicts, nature and the climate crisis, including military land management, the conduct of hostilities, and post-war recovery policies, with entry points for the IUCN and its members.
Easy to use checklists that allow users to judge the likely effectiveness or military climate mitigation strategies and the quality of emissions reporting.
Report mapping out EU military environmental policies and “greening” initiatives, including the extent to which environmental performance reporting is made publicly available. The review also draws on direct feedback from EU defence ministries on their environmental policies, as well as from other stakeholders with an interest in military environmental policy.
In this joint study with Scientists for Global Responsibility, we provide updated estimates for global and regional military GHG emissions, finding that the total military carbon footprint is approximately 5.5% of global emissions.
This paper examines the need for military greenhouse gas emissions reporting, its functions and components, and sets out an initial framework for the military sources that emissions reporting should cover, including those associated with armed conflicts.
In this report, Leonie Nimmo and Hana Manjusak examine the environmental Corporate Social Responsibility reporting of some of the world’s biggest arms companies, and discover that it may be far more useful than you might think.
There are signs that some countries may pledge to reduce military greenhouse gas emissions at COP26 in November. This call sets out the scope of what these pledges should include and is open for signature by organisations before and during the COP.
This CEOBS/SGR study set out to estimate the carbon footprint of the EU’s military sectors. The report also provides a broad overview of the policies and measures currently being pursued to reduce military GHG emissions in the EU, and their likely effectiveness.
In this report we analyse the UK’s practice on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts, using the draft principles on the topic that have been developed by the UN’s International Law Commission.
A brief introduction to the relationship between military activities and environmental harm, with suggested further reading.
Pollution Politics examines how the weakness of current international humanitarian law allows the generation of conflict pollution that can impact both civilian health and the environment for long after the cessation of hostilities. The report defines toxic remnants of war, explores how they are created and argues that a new mechanism is needed to prevent and remedy environmental damage, to increase accountability and improve post-conflict response and assistance.
Data centres are increasingly being targeted during conflicts, posing new and poorly understood pollution risks to the communities they are frequently located in. In this post Eoghan Darbyshire examines the trend, and what we know of the risks to people and the environment.
Is there a pattern to fires on military sites across Europe? And is it changing in response to the climate crisis and increasing military spending? Students Sara Niknam, Adam Krid and Ritchie Davelaar from Utrecht University’s Open-Source Global Justice Investigations Lab consider the evidence.
Our 2025 analysis of the military emissions data that countries report to the UNFCCC reveals that reporting is getting worse. Grace Alexander explores how, at a time of growing military spending, the expanding military emissions gap is undermining climate accounting and ambition.
Countries in South Asia are being hard hit by the climate crisis. In this guest post, Usman Ali examines how Pakistan and India’s security choices are leading to increasing military spending and emissions, while undermining human and environmental security.
Attention on the military uses of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ is largely restricted to firefighting foams, in our evidence to a UK parliamentary hearing on PFAS we argued that more research is urgently needed on releases from applications such as munitions.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has encouraged a rapid increase in the deployment of drones that use fibre optic cables to protect them from being jammed or downed by electronic warfare: the drones trail kilometres of plastic cable across frontlines – what are the environmental risks of this tech?
To mark this week’s UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Berlin, Ellie Kinney explains its potential role in improving transparency over the reporting of military GHG emissions and shares recommendations that would help encourage decarbonisation.
Ellie Kinney explores why ramping up military spending while military decarbonisation is in its infancy risks locking in carbon-intensive military equipment for decades, why spiralling military spending is placing climate action and our collective security at risk, and what needs to happen next.
Pressure to ban PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ over their toxicity and environmental persistence is growing but their military applications beyond firefighting foams have received limited attention. Linsey Cottrell explores their broader military uses, and why regulators shouldn’t let militaries keep using them.
Militaries are increasingly publishing climate mitigation strategies, so we’ve developed checklists to evaluate them. In this post Linsey Cottrell introduces the checklists, and also compares military decarbonisation with another challenging sector: healthcare.
CEOBS’ Military Emissions Campaigner Ellie Kinney reflects on the first Military Emissions Gap conference, which brought together academia, civil society and military representatives to discuss military and conflict greenhouse gas emissions.
In this blog, Linsey Cottrell summarises the key findings from our report into the state of “greening” policies across EU militaries.
Attention on the military uses of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ is largely restricted to firefighting foams, in our evidence to a UK parliamentary hearing on PFAS we argued that more research is urgently needed on releases from applications such as munitions.
116 recommendations developed by a civil society collaboration to improve NATO’s environmental performance and policies.
Report detailing the environmental footprint of UK military activities and operations, the UK arms industry and the potential environmental impact of the use of the UK’s nuclear weapons.
Policy brief by NATO’s Defence College on its developing environmental security agenda, which covers conflict risks, reducing harm in operations, how climate change will alter operations and impact bases, and on what role NATO should play in addressing and responding to these issues.
NATO and its member states are reacting to growing international pressure to reduce the environmental consequences of conflicts, this compilation of articles provides examples of this response.
Policy brief which shows that eight of the 10 countries hosting the largest multilateral peace operations in 2018 were located in areas highly exposed to climate change, yet international efforts to build and maintain peace are not yet taking these emerging challenges systematically into account.
A paper examining US military fuel use for the post 9-11 wars, which finds that the Department of Defense emits more CO2 than many countries with advanced economies.
This report looks at the environmental impact of peace operations and how the UN has responded, including through policies and guidelines, dedicated staff, and training material. In particular, it assesses the challenges the Department of Field Support faces in implementing its Environment Strategy.
The military has been quicker than some to grasp the problems that climate change might cause, but until recently, this hadn’t looked closer to home, and at their many installations around the world.
This series from Pro Publica sought to map toxic military sites on the continental US, investigated specific contaminants such as RDX and documented the environmental risks from practises such as outsourcing military clean-ups.
With 2017’s UN Environment Assembly focusing on the theme of pollution, UN Environment’s Civil Society Unit invited the TRW Project to contribute an extended article on conflict pollution to its long-running Perspectives series.
EU chemicals legislation intended to protect human health and the environment is having an impact on military procurement within the EU and beyond. This report outlines the concerns of the European Defence Association over these regulations.
Discussion on the environemntal dimensions of military peace-keeping operations. This chapter first appeared in Governance, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding.
This report, which is aimed at militaries, summarises the twelve principles of the Ecosystem Approach into four steps of a Rapid Ecological Assessment for the areas that armed forces are deployed to.
Revised and reissued US Army doctrinal manual on environmental protection in operations, taking into account forces health protection, the sustainability of operations and host nation relations.
Part of a long-term project between the US, Sweden and Finland to develop and promote common environmental standards for deployed militaries.
The proceedings from European Conference of Defence and the Environment cover a range of environmental issues associated with military preparedness and training, as well as the management of legacy issues on defence estates.
This report shows that peacekeeping operations not only have important natural resource implications, as well as significant impacts on the environment, but also that natural resources are often a fundamental aspect of conflict resolution, livelihoods and confidence-building at the local level.
RAND’s research showed that environmental concerns can have far-reaching and significant impacts on the US Army, both direct and indirect, especially in terms of cost, current operations, soldier health, diplomatic relations, reconstruction activities, and the ultimate success of the operation or the broader mission. Some evidence suggests that environmental problems may have even contributed to insurgency in Iraq.
This guidebook gives operational planners the necessary tools to incorporate environmental considerations throughout the life cycle of the operation. Failure to integrate environmental considerations into operational- and tactical-level planning increases the risk to the health and safety of military personnel and civilian non-combatants.
