IC25: What are the carbon emissions from wars?

Show notes

Firstly, wars are horrible for countless reasons, carbon emissions are certainly not on top of the list of the terrible things that result from armed conflicts. Today, we try to zoom into the carbon emissions that come out of wars and leave the humanitarian aspects of them to proper experts in that field to discuss.

Did you know that emissions from the military are exempted from reporting? That leaves a huge gap in emission transparency that we do not even know about properly. So join us this week as we try to uncover the emissions coming from 1st order, 2nd order, and 3rd order effects of armed conflicts.

It will be as inconvenient as you can imagine. But there is a small silver lining in the very end, we promise.

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If you have a topic on your mind that you have always wondered about, send us an e-mail with your topic recommendation and we’ll make it less inconvenient for all of you.

Sources

• Conflict and Environment Observatory (November 2024), Guest Article: CCPI x Military Emissions Gap – How Military Emissions Impact Global Warming (https://ccpi.org/guest-article-ccpi-x-military-emissions-gap-how-military-emissions-impact-global-warming/))
• Scientific American (June 2024), Warfare’s Climate Emissions Are Huge but Uncounted (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/warfares-climate-emissions-are-huge-but-uncounted/))
• Remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai (01 December 2023) (https://www.nato.int/en/news-and-events/events/transcripts/2023/12/01/remarks))
• Planetary Security Initiative (February 2025), Climate damage caused by Russian War in Ukraine in three years: The key numbers (https://www.planetarysecurityinitiative.org/news/climate-damage-caused-russian-war-ukraine-three-years-key-numbers))
• The Conversation (February 2025), How the war in Ukraine has made flying worse for the climate (https://theconversation.com/how-the-war-in-ukraine-has-made-flying-worse-for-the-climate-249039))
• UNDP (September 2025), Record military spending threatens global peace and development, new UN report warns (https://www.undp.org/press-releases/record-military-spending-threatens-global-peace-and-development-new-un-report-warns))
• Balázs Markó (January 2025), The Green Peace Dividend: the Effects of Militarization on Emissions and the Green Transition (https://arxiv.org/html/2408.16419))
• Bruegel (April 2025), Defence and climate: seven points for a common agenda (https://www.bruegel.org/analysis/defence-and-climate-seven-points-common-agenda))