Today, the COP29 Presidency is hosting a dialogue on “Peace and Climate: Enhancing International Cooperation for Enabling Resilience to the Most Vulnerable.” This follows recent announcements that COP29 in Baku will focus on the “advancement of the peace agenda.” With violent conflicts raging across the world, the links between peace and climate justice have become ever more pertinent.
Military spending exacerbates the climate crisis in three significant ways:
- Firstly, an increase in military expenditure positively correlates with increased emissions, as militaries and their supply chains rely heavily on fossil fuels without any feasible prospects of the sector fully switching to renewable energy.
- Secondly, it diverts valuable resources away from the urgent needs of climate mitigation, adaptation, and addressing loss and damage. The wealthiest nations, identified as Annex II in UN climate negotiations, allocate 30 times more to their military budgets than their provisions of climate finance to the most vulnerable countries. Similarly, lower income countries also spend significant proportions of their public finance on the military sector – to the detriment of climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as the well-being of their population.
- Thirdly, ever-rising military spending creates a more insecure world, hampering diplomacy, trust, and cooperation, and leading to more conflicts and wars with devastating consequences for people and the planet.
With the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for post-2025 climate finance set to be adopted at COP29, developed countries must fulfill their climate finance obligations by dramatically scaling up provision of finance to developing countries. This can in part be done by ending fossil fuel subsidies and reallocating military spending to climate change mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and a just transition.
Global military expenditure surged to an unprecedented $2.4 trillion in 2023 — the highest level ever recorded and the steepest year-on-year rise since 2009. Meanwhile, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, recently emphasised the need to mobilise that very same amount to achieve global climate change goals.
A global reduction in military spending would not just reduce emissions but would also free up resources urgently needed to confront the diverse challenges posed by the climate crisis. Furthermore, given the structural under-funding of adaptation, just 3% of annual global military spending could provide $70 billion in funding for climate resilient development – almost three times the amount that developed countries were willing to provide to developing countries for adaptation in 2021.
If the COP29 presidency is serious about making the Baku climate talks a “Peace COP,” it’s time to recognise that demilitarisation and military expenditure reallocation are central to achieving climate justice and peace.