Lead up to COP31 in Turkey – events, publications and campaigns

CAMPAIGNS
EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS & WEBINAR

Greetings friends, colleagues and supporters,

We hope this email finds you well as we emerge from a summer of extreme heat and stress into cooler days and nights.

Here in the UK, from schools to hospitals, public transport to agriculture and industrialised animal farming, this summer has brought home the deep harm wrought by a rapidly heating planet. This desperate situation is made all the worse by military activities, including and especially wars of aggression that are, fatally, inextricably linked to oil and gas production.

It is becoming very clear that this unholy alliance of war, conflict and oil is at the heart of the climate emergency. On this military/climate nexus, our work – research, reports, conferences, webinars – happens in collaboration with colleagues internationally. Our collective advocacy is gaining traction as we seek to reverse both military emissions and military spending so they are in line with legally binding agreements signed by all nations under the UNFCCC as well as in support of climate finance.

But the incomprehensible scale and horror of what befell the innocent people of Nepal makes it clear: the planet cannot take much more. We have no choice but to move with the utmost urgency.

As we now start to prepare for our participation at COP31 in November – two official side events, press conferences, extensive lobbying and advocacy efforts – we hope this current TPNS news round-up has something of interest for you. Always reach out if you have questions or want to know more about our work, or how to support what we do.

Onwards,
Deborah, Ho-Chih and all at TPNS.

CAMPAIGNS

GLOBAL WEEKS OF ACTION 14-27 SEPTEMBER

The Global Week of Action on Ending Fossil Fuels (14-20 Sept) and Global Week of Action on Peace and Climate Justice (21-27 Sept) are key moments in the year where the issue of militarism in all forms and guises is taken out to both national and international audiences.

TPNS contribution to both weeks of action included a new publication entitled Ending Fossil Fuels and Abolishing War: A Crossroads Reached with a foreword by acclaimed Italian theoretical physicist and bestselling author Professor Carlo Rovelli.

Other week of action activities included co-authoring an open letter on military GHG emissions, sent to Miatta Fahnbulleh, the new UK Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; and joining with colleagues speaking to conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine and Lebanon for a webinar ‘Fuelling War and Climate Breakdown: Feminist Perspectives’.

Find out more about the Global Week of Action Peace and Climate Justice: https://climatemilitarism.org/weekofaction/

EVENTS

BONN CLIMATE CONFERENCE (SB64)

TPNS attended Bonn Climate conference in June. Military emissions and spending were present across actions; press conferences; meetings and plenary interventions. Our side event was very well attended and plans for COP in Turkey were discussed with a range of potential allies and collaborators.

BONN 2026 was a markedly different climate conference from previous COPs and Bonn meetings TPNS has attended (beginning November 2022 Sharm El Sheikh COP27). The SB64 was by far and away the most encouraging calendar moment in the effort to get military emissions – and military spending – onto various constituencies’ agenda. More below including the TPNS/Peaceboat screening of Earth’s Greatest Enemy – Abby Martin’s excoriating cinema documentary about the climate impacts of the USA military.

https://tippingpointnorthsouth.org/2026/07/02/bonn-climate-conference-2026/

MEDIA TRAINING DAY – GLOBAL MOVEMENT AGAINST NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

For Bonn 2025, TPNS led on report ‘The alarming rise of false climate solutions in Africa: the nuclear energy misadventure’. It was prepared as a collective advocacy report along with 12 organisations across the continent, also Europe and Russia. It made the case that the continent is becoming both a potential testing ground and, in particular, a battleground for conflicting geopolitical influences that are also playing out in the field of nuclear technology exports. At the same time, the nuclear energy lobby’s extensive, well-funded and global PR effort, including at UNFCCC climate meetings is also documented in the report.

Building on the impact of that report, Renevlyn Development Initiative in Lagos and Tipping Point North South co-hosted a one-day hybrid training to build the capacity of Nigerian journalists to effectively report on why nuclear power plants are a false solution to the energy deficit in Africa. The event was well attended by journalists across the media spectrum who came to listen to speakers drawn from local, national and international veteran investigative journalists, nuclear power experts and environmental activists. The workshop secured significant media coverage of the issue. The workshop closed with a powerful presentation by the brilliant Tunisian-American economist Fadhel Kaboub and the day secured significant Nigerian media coverage.

PUBLICATIONS & WEBINAR

REPORT: Ending Fossil Fuels and Abolishing War: A Crossroads Reached

The fossil-fuel dependent militaries and associated lucrative arms industries are at the heart of our climate crisis. To abolish war is to eliminate a major contributor to death, environmental destruction and climate chaos. To abolish war is to begin to see the end of the military-fossil fuel relationship. To abolish war is one necessary step in pursuit of the end of fossil fuels and the zero-carbon world we must achieve. This publication unpacks the issue, gives an historical context and offers up ways forward.

Full Report https://transformdefence.org/publication/abolish-war/

BLOG: The abolition of war – a nail in the coffin of fossil fuels

Fossils fuels are the lifeblood of the modern military and so to seek to abolish war is to eliminate a major contributor to the climate emergency. Historical context matters to this seemingly ‘naive’ call. The Global and Comprehensive Disarmament agreement of 1961 (USA and Soviet Union) remains the ultimate goal of the combined activities in the UN disarmament machinery. In the UN 2007 annual report, Ban Ki-moon stated that “the ultimate strategic goal of the United Nations is ‘general and complete disarmament under effective international control’”.

Read the article https://transformdefence.org/2026/09/12/the-abolition-of-war-a-nail-in-the-coffin-of-fossil-fuels/

OPEN LETTER: Ending Fossil Fuels and Abolishing War: A Crossroads Reached

23 Signatories on the issue of unreported military emissions, sent to Miatta Fahnbulleh, Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Letter https://tippingpointnorthsouth.org/2026/09/21/open-letter-to-secretary-of-state-for-energy-security-and-net-zero-miatta-fahnbulleh/