Presentations & Conferences, Publications & Performances

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Dear friends and supporters,

We hope you’ve had a good summer, with time to recharge your batteries, as we move into autumn.

And we hope there is plenty of interest in our Spring/Summer catch up below, along with some event dates for your diary.

Once again, a HUGE thank-you to all our regular givers, our major donors and the grant-makers who sustain our work.

You can keep up with our work on social media at

FACEBOOK, TWITTER and
Transform Defence social media: Twitter, Facebook

Best wishes,
Deb, Ho-Chih and all at TPNS.

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TPNS’S TRANSFORM DEFENCE project continues to take its messages to various fora as it draws the ever clearer connection between rising military spending and greater military emissions. At the same time, it makes the case that military spending is a legitimate source to tap for climate finance for vulnerable countries along with loss and damage.

THE BIG WEEKEND/XR PEACE

We were delighted to be invited by the Movement for the Abolition of War to take part at XR Peace’s programme for the Big Weekend in April, where our presentation made in front of the MOD building revealed the scale of the impact of military emissions on climate change; action at UNFCCC and COP and why present day foreign and defence policy- making is not fit for purpose in this era of climate chaos.

BONN UN CLIMATE CONFERENCE

Following on from our COP27 Official Side Event in Egypt entitled Dealing with military and conflict related emissions under the UNFCCC TPNS were co-organisers of a 4-speaker side event at the Bonn Climate Conference in June.  Our session was entitled ‘Closing the Global Stocktake’s military emissions gap’. Deborah Burton’s contribution focussed on the positive correlation between military spending and military emissions.

The side event built on our submission to the Global Stocktake (GST) addressing military emissions reporting to the GST and co-signed by Conflict and Environment Observatory, Concrete Impacts, Costs of War Project, Norwegian People’s Aid, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Zoï Environment Network. A poster was produced for the GST TD poster session to accompany this submission.

Productive meetings were held with IPCC and UNFCCC officials as well as a number of country and NGO delegates. The Quaker UN Office published their overview on Fair Finance for Loss & Damage and cited TPNS’ 5% formula as potentially part of the funding solution.

Video: Side Event Presentation Deborah Burton

Bonn / Global Stocktake related media
TPNS quotes carried across various media via

UPCOMING:  26 SEPT MILITARY EMISSIONS ACADEMIC CONFERENCE, OXFORD

Along with our June 2022 Report calls for an IPCC Special Report on the role of the military in climate change and inclusion of military emissions full reporting to the Global Stocktake, we called for an academic conference that could begin to draw existing and new research together which could advance our IPCC call.

We are delighted that a number of academic institutions have come together to deliver the first such event at the King’s Centre in Oxford. Our colleague Axel Michaelowa from Perspectives Climate Group will make his presentation on a panel alongside Prof Neta Crawford, Oxford University, and Dr Stuart Parkinson, Scientists for Global Responsibility

This conference is being predominantly funded by UKRI-ESRC Concrete Impacts and is jointly organised by Concrete Impacts, Conflict and Environment Observatory, Initiative on GHG Accounting of War, Scientists for Global Responsibility, University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations, QMUL, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

We are delighted to be included in the inaugural volume
of Degrowth Journal organised as a free, open-access, international, trans-disciplinary, and peer-reviewed journal that focuses on advancing the goals of degrowth. Our paper wanted to draw largely unaddressed connections between degrowth and the global military.

In October we shall be publishing the second collaborative report with Transnational Institute and Stop Wappenhandel (Netherlands) on the topic of climate collateral, military spending and emissions.

It will be released in advance of our attendance at COP28 and will be shared in our October pre-COP newsletter along with our finalised COP plans.

HIGHLIGHTS – MEDIA DIGEST

Our work and the work of colleagues on military emissions and spending is securing ever more media coverage. From BBC World Service to Al Jazeera, Reuters to China Global TV Network, the TV, radio and print highlights are here.

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EVENTS – SAVE THE DATES

October 22 & 26 – BHM and MLK’s legacy at St John’s Church Waterloo

We are pulling together a mini-programme of events to mark Black History Month and which will be a part of the BHM Exploring Spirit programme at the stunning, newly renovated St. John’s Church in Waterloo. We are delighted to be bringing two MLK focussed events with contributions from actors Adjoa Andoh (Richard II, Bridgerton – and founding TPNS board member), Paterson Joseph (Othello, Julius Caesar, The Beach, Peep Show) and Professor Robert Beckford – prolific author, broadcaster and film-maker.

We are finalising the programme and will send out booking details in the coming week or two.

Palestine: The Nakba marks 75 years

The call to Make Apartheid History is more resonant than ever as we mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the NAKBA – the Palestinian Catastrophe – as the state of Israel was founded, along with the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.  MAH shared its short videos  in solidarity with NAKBA 75 and BDS including BSC calls for both a cultural boycott and military boycott of Israel until it complies with international law.

October 27 Palfest literary event at the Royal Geographical Society, 7.30pm

Our own MAH supporter Juliet Stephenson joins some of the biggest names of stage and page to mark 75 Years of ongoing Nakba and steadfast resistance – a night of performance, poetry, music and reflection that will journey through a century of struggle, colonization and insistence on life. Admired actors will bring to life words from the past, beloved authors will reflect on the present – all to a live improvised score.

Rashid Khalidi — Julie Christie — Harriet Walter — Abdulrazak Gurnah — Juliet Stevenson — Esther Freud — Isabel Adomakoh Young — Andrew O’Hagan — David Morrissey — Sabrina Mahfouz — Khalid Abdalla — Mohammed Hanif — Tamim Barghouti!

Book here  https://www.palfest.org/full-schedule/londonrgsevent