Emissions from the world’s armed forces must be recorded and published as the United States and UK armed services alone release as much carbon dioxide per capita as many carbon-intensive countries.
In this week’s issue of Nature, Oliver Heidrich, Oliver Belcher, and colleagues argue that emissions from the world’s military forces must be counted and published.
The authors draw attention to the fact that the armed forces of the US and the UK produce as much carbon dioxide per person as many carbon-intensive nations.
They argue that decarbonization of military operations is necessary as well as the formal recognition and accurate reporting of military emissions in national inventories.
It is believed that the military contributes between 1 and 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which puts it in the same neighborhood as the aviation and shipping sectors.
Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, armies have been excluded from international agreements to declare emissions on the grounds of protecting national security.
Estimating totals is difficult due to a lack of available statistics, and only a small number of forces, such as those of the United Kingdom and the United States, have released strategy documents on climate action.
Accurate methods for computing emissions from military actions are also lacking.
For instance, it is nearly impossible to record in hostile, dynamic, or unsafe environments such as Ukraine, Russia, North Korea or China.
The authors add that the US forces alone, which are the most expensive in the world in terms of expenditure, emit more greenhouse gases than many nations, including Peru, Singapore, and Switzerland. This is based on data on fuel use.
If the US military were a country, it would produce more carbon dioxide equivalents per person than any other country in the world (at 42 metric tonnes of CO2 per staff member).
The true amount, according to Heidrich and co-authors, may be substantially higher because accounting for other energy sources, raw materials, supply chains, and equipment production might significantly raise emissions estimates.
Warfare emissions add more. Researchers need to figure this out to learn how armed conflicts affect the climate and to help countries figure out how to get back on their feet in a way that uses less carbon.
“A standardized methodology and comprehensive assessment framework for greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the authors, “including emissions embedded in products across their life cycles, are needed.”
Source: 10.1038/d41586-022-03444-7
Image Credit: Omar Marques/Getty Images
