TAKING MILITARY EMISSIONS & SPENDING
INTO THE BLUE ZONE AT COP28 UAE

Dear friends, supporters, colleagues,

As COP28 looms, despite some positive commentary (the recent Biden/XI meeting), the ever-rising sense that COP28 will not deliver the action we so urgently need is everywhere. Whether cuts to emissions, no new oil and a rapid move away from fossil fuels across all sectors, there is still so far to go if we are not to overshoot the 1.5 degrees of warming that will further accelerate runaway climate change.

And critically, governments also need to commit to massively scaling up climate finance to countries in the global south on the ever expanding frontline of climate change. Finance rich countries are legally bound to deliver.

Nevertheless, we feel it is right to attend COP28 because of the windows of opportunity to speak at official side events to delegates (UN, governments, media, NGOs) on the still relatively new topic of military emissions, linked to spending and climate finance and Loss and Damage.

And sadly, with this vital COP so close, the climate community is mourning the unexpected death of Professor Saleemul Huq – a driving force at every climate negotiation and the beating heart of the Loss and Damage movement. He was a brilliant, generous man. His support of our work on military emissions and spending was invaluable.  His spirit will be felt everywhere the loss and damage cause is debated and our side event on 6th December is dedicated to him.

Below is our COP28 events listing plus news on our latest report & associated webinar. Also some thoughts on how the war on Gaza will impact COP28.  All official COP side events inside the Blue Zone are live-streamed on the UNFCCC youtube channel.

Best wishes,
Deb & Ho-Chih

OFFICIAL COP28 SIDE EVENTS

This year we will be attending with our Climate Crossfire Report and we are delighted to be contributing to three events inside the Blue Zone this year. Thanks to all our colleagues with whom we have worked collaboratively on this work: Drexel University, Perspectives Climate Group, Quaker UN Office, Stop Wapenhandel ,Transnational Institute, WILPF.

December 4
Win-win for climate and gender justice & peace: Acting on military spending and military emissions. Drexel University, Tipping Point North South, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Speakers from UK, USA, Yemen, Syria, Philippines.

December 6
With military emissions now on the climate agenda, should global military spending be part of the climate finance and Loss and Damage debate? If so how? Tipping Point North South in collaboration with Perspectives Climate Group (Germany) and the Taiwan Climate Partnership. Speakers from Oxford University, WILPF, Quaker UN Office, TPNS. This event is dedicated to the memory of Professor Saleemul Huq.

December 10
Shifting money and power: true transformational climate action as a peace and justice multiplier. Focusing on a rights-based approach to climate action, we explore how money and power shifts in current economic, energy, and military could help accelerate urgent, transformational climate action for a more just and peaceful world. Co-hosts: Quakers in Britain, Quaker Earthcare Witness, Soka Gakkai International UK, Friends World Committee for Consultation/QUNO. Speakers from IPCC, Climate Action Int’l, Leeds University, TPNS.

COP28: NEW REPORT WITH TNI & STOP WAPENHANDEL

As a follow up to our Climate Collateral report released in advance of COP27 last year which looked at the ways in which global military spending is accelerating the climate crisis, we decided to look into the consequences of NATO’s goal of 2% spending of GDP on the military across its 31 member states.
 
Climate Crossfire, produced by Tipping Point North South (UK) together with Transnational Institute (International) and Stop Wapenhandel (Netherlands), estimated the likely financial implications as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result if all NATO members meet their commitment to increase military spending to a minimum of 2% of GDP. This year alone, NATO members spent $1.26 trillion on their militaries. This report shows that this could have paid for 12 years of promised – and still not delivered – climate finance to impoverished countries to help them deal with the climate crisis. And if NATO members increased their spending to 2% GDP since 2021, US$2.57 trillion would be diverted away from climate spending by 2028. This would be enough to pay for climate adaptation costs for all low- and middle-income countries for seven years. NATO’s average yearly military carbon footprint of 205 million tCO2e is higher than the total annual GHG emissions of many individual countries. If NATO’s militaries were a single country, it would rank as the world’s 40th largest carbon polluter. If all NATO members meet the target of 2% GDP spending, between 2021 and 2028 their total collective military carbon footprint would be 2 billion tCO2e, greater than the annual GHG emissions of Russia, a major petroleum-producing country.

The research led to one conclusion: the NATO 2% GDP military spending target both accelerates climate breakdown with increased GHG emissions while diverting millions of dollars from climate finance.
 
Media
UK/Int’l  Inside Climate News (Op Ed)
Germany Der Spiegel,  DieWelt,  Die TAZ.
France  Le climat dans le champ de tir
Reliefweb
Watch the report video
The executive summary has been translated into Spanish, French, Catalan and German.

NOVEMBER 28TH PRE-COP WEBINAR: MILITARY EMISSIONS & SPENDING

We are delighted to be part of the webinar, Climate Collateral: Exposing the Role of Militarism in the Climate Crisis  15:30 London Time / 10:30 New York, where the panel will present two recent reports: Less War, Less Warming and Climate Crossfire.
The webinar, jointly hosted by the Transnational Institute, the Climate and Community Project, Win Without War, and Common Wealth, will present findings from recent reports on the scope and impact of emissions from militaries and related industries in the US, UK, and across NATO member states. The webinar will examine options to channel wasteful, harmful military spending toward repairing both acute and diffuse socio-environmental harms and repurposing parts of the military industrial complex to drive the clean energy transition. 

Panelists
Khem Rogaly, Common Wealth 
Patrick Bigger, Climate and Community Project
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Fridays for Future, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines
Deborah Burton, Tipping Point North South UK
Nick Buxton, Transnational Institute

COP28, ISRAEL and GAZA

Last year, our message was amplified because of the war in Ukraine. This year, there is yet another terrible war being visited upon the children, women, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, of Gaza.

On top of all this, there is climate change.

Israel’s war with Hamas and on Gaza will undoubtedly impact on the COP, but how that will play out we have yet to see.

As Frederic Wehrey, senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace observes

…the conflict will invariably intrude on COP28. Civil society activists who attend will likely raise the plight of Gaza, drawing attention to how an escalating Israeli invasion, with its attendant destruction of water infrastructure and services and massive displacement, will have catastrophic and generational effects on Palestinians’ already severe vulnerability to climate change. These calls may well expand into a critique of Arab regimes’ normalization and cooperation with Israel, challenging the COP’s hosts to uphold their pledge of inclusion and free assembly.

In memory of a Gazan climate activist –  Khalil Abu Yahia

On October 30th, one of the many thousands killed in Gaza was Khalil Abu Yahia.  He was a researcher who drew attention to the impacts of climate change on the Gaza Strip ad who worked alongside Israeli colleagues. Khalil was killed in an Israeli airstrike, along with his mother, his two brothers, his wife Tasnim, and his two young daughters, Elaf and Rital. 

On October 11th, Khalil reported that Israeli forces were using phosphorus bombs. “Tens of our neighbors are being killed now and we just hear screams of the wounded people under the wreckage and debris of the surrounding houses,” he wrote. “Still, I will never surrender.” The next day, he was inside a house when it was destroyed by an aerial bombardment, killing neighbors and members of his extended family. “What is the world waiting for to move?” he demanded. “Until we are completely annihilated?” A few days later, Khalil wrote to let us know of the deaths of more family members. “This colonial system doesn’t understand the language of equality,” he said. “We, the colonized and their partners and friends who advocate human rights, shall force this colonial system to stop by making a crack in the system through activism and solidarity. My family members who lost their lives to the Israeli bombing will always be the source of power to go on in this long way of struggle.”

Obituary Jewish Currents

Tributes by his friends and colleagues Natasha Westheimer and Sahar Vardi, an Israeli human rights and anti-militarism activist.

As of 17 November, Relief Web reports that Euro-Med Monitor estimated that at least 15,271 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including 3,561 women and 6,403 children. Over 32,310 additional people have been injured by the Israeli attacks, many of whom are in critical condition and unable to receive even the bare minimum of medical attention due to the Gazan health system’s collapse.

There are reportedly 4,1500 people missing beneath the debris of buildings hit by Israeli air and artillery strikes, with little chance of their survival. Hundreds of bodies that cannot be recovered remain on the roads, according to Euro-Med Monitor, particularly in areas where the Israeli army has conducted ground incursions.

Over 1,650 million Gazans have been internally displaced, about half of whom are living in severely overcrowded UNRWA-run facilities that are neither intended nor suitable for shelter, added Euro-Med Monitor.

According to the rights organisation, 55,200 housing units have been completely destroyed by the Israeli attacks, while 160,700 others have been partially damaged. One hundred and seventeen health facilities, as well as 223 schools, 821 industrial facilities, 177 press offices, 75 mosques, and three churches, have been targeted.