The world mustn’t keep looking away from the environmental costs of war

The world is besieged with two wars raging across two continents: Ukraine in East Europe and Gaza in West Asia. The 1990s’ Gulf War was responsible for huge greenhouse gas emissions as oil wells were targeted, with vast oil spills in the sea hurting almost every marine species. This data can be kept secret under a veil of ‘national security.’ A study on the macroeconomic impact of climate change by Adrien Bilal of Harvard and Diego Känzig of Northwestern University finds that a world that has already warmed by more than 1° Celsius since pre-industrial times means 12% less global gross domestic product as a result and a shrinkage in wealth that matches the financial losses of a “continuing permanent war." This year’s CoP-29 at Baku failed to negotiate a climate finance goal of $1.3 trillion per year, as the developed world committed only $300 billion dollars annually by 2035 to help developing countries transition to clean energy, decarbonize their economies and secure people from the impact of climate change. The US, the world’s biggest economy, has spent $60.7 billion on military assistance to Ukraine and at least $17.9 billion on aid for Israel in the past two-and-a-half years.