Dear friends, supporters and colleagues,
It hardly seems possible but it is 20 years since the world mobilised to speak out and tell their governments ‘Not in Our Name’ – no invasion of Iraq. Marches took place on every continent, including Antarctica.
Did it stop the war? No. Were the arguments made by those against the invasion proven right? Yes. Deborah Burton and Ho-Chih Lin have co-written a blog with Amir Amirani, director of We Are Many to mark this 20th anniversary. One of the core messages of the film – foreign and defence policy-making built upon lies and misinformation can only lead to long term often catastrophic consequences – now remains at the heart of our Transform Defence project.
BLOG: We Are Many – More Than Ever
Reflecting on 20 years since the global anti-Iraq war marches and the invasion that followed
In the nine years of the Iraq War, according to the Costs of Wars Project, around 300,000 people (including civilians) were killed directly and many more killed indirectly. The invasion of Iraq by the United States-led coalition was estimated to have released around 250 million tCO2e. Despite this enormous climate impact, there is a shocking lack of transparency and accountability to the UNFCCC for this particular sector. Ever rising military budgets fund the big GHG emitting hardware. The richest countries are spending 30 times as much on their armed forces as they spend on providing climate finance for the world’s most vulnerable countries
Read the blog here.
Watch the film here.
TALK: Military Emissions, Military Spending and Climate Change, Drexel University USA
Post COP27 Deborah was invited to give a webinar as part of a series for Drexel University’s Green Infrastructure, Climate and Cities programme followed by a panel discussion with Prof Franco Montalto and Kristy Kelly PhD, a specialist in gender and development.
Watch the talk here.
Also delighted to have joined CODEPINK in the USA for a webinar on unpacking COP27 – the highs and the lows; what was achieved for the issue of military emissions and spending; and what we might expect from COP28 in Dubai.
FILM: MLK Global
MLK Day 16 January: To mark MLK Day our MLK Global team – Yolande Cadore in NYC, Dionne Gravesande and Deborah Burton – wrote this piece.
March 29th: We look forward to returning to Union Chapel in Islington, north London, for another screening of the outstanding film: From Montgomery to Memphis. Check Union Chapel website for more information nearer the date.
UN SUBMISSION: Missing Military Emissions
The Global Stocktake is a new UNFCCC process to gather information on GHG emissions with the results to be presented at COP28 this year in Dubai. The stocktake enables the assessment of global collective progress on mitigation, adaptation, means of implementation and support.
Critically, the process needs information about what is not being ‘counted’ and unreported military emissions are just that. We are working to get military emissions on the Global Stocktake and with seven other research and advocacy groups (Europe & USA) we have just made a joint submission based on the recommendations of our June 2022 report on military emissions reporting to the UNFCCC.
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