The growing military spending in the world increases greenhouse gas emissions

Researchers believe that increasing defense spending around the world would exacerbate the climate crisis, which will lead to more conflicts, and global military mobilization is an existential threat to climate goals, and is undermined sustainable development efforts.

They said that the reinforcement of NATO (NATO) alone would increase the emissions of global warming gas by about 200 million tons annually.

With the world’s involvement in the largest number of armed conflicts since World War II, states have begun in military spending campaigns that reached a record number of $ 2.46 trillion in 2023.

The researchers considered that every dollar is invested in new equipment not only represents a corresponding Carbonian cost, but also represents the cost of an alternative opportunity for a possible climate work, in addition to the huge number of deaths resulting from armed conflicts.

Real anxiety

“There is a real concern about the way we give priority to security in the short term, and we are sacrificed for long -term security,” said Elie Kenny, a researcher at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, and the author, Elie Kenny.

She added, “Because of this unwilling approach we follow, countries are now investing in strict military security, which increases global emissions and exacerbates the climate crisis in the future.”

This is likely to lead to more violence, as the climate change is seen, now, increasingly as an engine of conflict, albeit indirectly. In the Darfur region in Sudan, the conflict was linked to the competition for scarce resources, after drought and long desertification.

In the Arctic, the decline of marine ice leads to tensions around those who have control over the biological and biological mineral resources that have become available.

Few armies have transparency about the size of its use of fossil fuel, but researchers have estimated that these combined armies are already responsible for 5.5% of global global warming emissions.

It is expected that this number will rise with the escalation of tensions in a number of regions, with the signal of the United States – which was for the largest military spending contracts in the world – that it expects its allies in NATO to allocate much larger resources to their armed forces.

Increase in militarization

According to the World Peace Index, militarization increased in 108 countries in 2023, with 92 countries involved in armed conflicts in areas ranging from Ukraine, Gaza, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With the escalation of tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan, as well as the frozen conflict between India and Pakistan, governments that fear war are pumping huge investments in their armies.

In Europe, the increase was particularly enormous. Between 2021 and 2024, European Union countries’ spending on weapons increased by more than 30%, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. In March, the European Union – who was concerned about US President Donald Trump’s reduction in military aid and diplomatic support for Ukraine – indicated that this action will be taken on a broader scale, with proposals for additional spending of 800 billion euros at the union level, specified in a plan entitled “Reinstitting Europe”.

A real threat

In a study of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Kenny and her colleagues discussed the potential impact of increasing armament on achieving climate goals. What they reached was worrying, as the possible increase in emissions resulting from rearmament “NATO” alone is equivalent to adding a large and densely populated country, such as Pakistan, to the remaining carbon budget in the world.

“Our analysis is particularly focused on influencing (target 13) of the sustainable development goals, which is the climate work to take urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects,” Kenny said, adding: “What our study has been concluded – given the various sub -goals that is – that there is a real threat to global climate work due to the global increase in military spending.” Of all the functions of countries, armies are unique in their consumption of carbon.

Causes of the problem

Another participant in the study, Linard de Clerek, a group of greenhouse gas emissions accounting in wars, indicated that the causes of the problem are first in the equipment that countries buy, which consists mainly of large quantities of steel and aluminum, which consumes large amounts of carbon. He also explained that during the operations, armies are highly motivated, and fossil fuel (diesel) is used to move and for wild operations, and “kerosene” for air operations, as it is used in marine operations “diesel” mainly, if they are not working with nuclear energy. On the “Guardian”

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secrecy

Due to the secrecy that is usually surrounded by armies and their processes, it is difficult to know the amount of greenhouse gases that emanate from them, but only NATO countries (NATO) are the ones that report their emissions enough, so that scientists can appreciate them.

. Re -armament that NATO plans to increase emissions by about 200 million tons annually.