Climate Emergency

We are in a climate emergency. The World Economic Forum Global Risk Report for 2021, lists ‘extreme weather’, ‘climate action failure’ and ‘human environmental damage’ as the three most pressing global threats. Not only is the UK military one of the most significant contributors to UK carbon emissions, our spirally military spending is diverting vital public funds from addressing this most pressing security issue.

The information below is taken from a recent article by Dr. Stuart Parkinson, Director of Scientists for Global Responsiblity.

“The growing climate crisis is a major source of global insecurity, with leading military figures regarding it as a ‘threat multiplier’.¹  The government had already been planning to spend £2.9bn a year on international climate finance between 2021 and 2025 – and this at least seems to have survived the aid budget cuts.²  On a domestic front, the autumn saw the release of a ‘Ten point plan for a green industrial revolution’ aimed at boosting the UK’s efforts to reduce its own carbon emissions. ³  The headline figure for this plan was given as £12bn, but SGR analysis⁴ of the document leads us to conclude there is a maximum of only £11bn during this parliament – so average annual spending of nearly £2.8bn, less than half the increase in the military budget. Closer examination of the plan also reveals that low-cost renewables such as onshore wind and solar photovoltaic farms are excluded, while more speculative and controversial technologies such as ‘advanced nuclear’ and carbon capture, utilisation and storage are to be given hundreds of millions of pounds. Furthermore, efforts to rapidly increase home insulation and domestic low carbon technologies via a ‘Green Homes Grant’ have already run into major problems with only 13% of a planned £1.5bn fund being spent during the 2020-21 financial year due to administrative problems.⁵  The scheme has since been closed to new applicants.

In April, the UK parliament agreed a new legally-binding target of a 78% cut in carbon emissions by 2035 in line with recommendations by the Climate Change Committee (CCC).⁶  However, Britain is not even on course to meet its 2025 target, so the CCC has urged the government to markedly increase domestic action.⁷ Among its recommendations is that government spending on emissions reduction should increase very rapidly to between £9bn/y and £12bn/y – and that other (non-budget) measures are also needed to help switch or stimulate the rest of the UK economy to spend at least £40bn/y. This would require, for example, a doubling of the government spending planned for 2021-22. But note this is only to reach the net-zero carbon target by 2050. A growing number of climate scientists argue that we need to hit this target before 2035.”

Essential Reading

Take Action

The Conflict and Environment Observatory have launched a call for military emissions to be included in discussions and commitments at the COP26 climate talks.

The initiative calls for transparency in recording and reporting of military emissions and an end to the military exception for binding emissions targets.

Support the call