Armed conflicts are not just a human tragedy. They are also climate tragedies, with short and long-term consequences for public health, ecosystems, and the environment. In 2024, the world spent a record $2.7 trillion on military expenses, with increasing spending every year over the past decade and consequently an increasing military carbon footprint.
From Ukraine to Sudan, Gaza to Lebanon, Iran, and Venezuela, as populations suffer from war, bombs, occupation, militarization, and political violence, the damages extend beyond the front lines: homes, hospitals, power grids, water supply systems, farmlands, and coastlines also suffer from the violence of destruction.
The military carbon footprint: an invisible climate cost
War not only kills people and destroys their homes but also damages the systems that sustain life, including water supply networks, purification stations, farmlands, ports, fuel depots, and electrical infrastructures. It leaves behind ecocide with polluted air, contaminated soil, and unhealthy water long after hostilities end. Research highlights a similar pattern for recent conflicts, with fires, toxic debris, damaged sanitation systems, collapsing public health systems, and ecosystems pushed past the point of no return.
These damages are not accidental, showing how war disrupts daily life.
In Iran, just days after the first American-Israeli strikes, energy became a battlefield, with attacks and counterattacks targeting fossil fuel-related infrastructure.
Strait of Hormuz became a hotspot with dozens of oil tankers carrying billions of liters of oil stuck in the Persian Gulf. A single oil spill in the region could irreversibly damage this fragile marine habitat, a warning from Greenpeace Germany.
In Gaza, Greenpeace MENA’s analysis revealed severe damage to water, sanitation, farmlands, and fishing, estimating that the first 120 days of war emitted over half a million tons of carbon dioxide. This combination of bombings, infrastructure collapse, and pollution makes a place less habitable, less healthy, and less resilient to climate change.
The Sudan offers another striking example: research from the Conflict and Environment Observatory showed that war led to deforestation, agricultural decline, industrial pollution, and collapse of health and sanitation systems, compromising access to food, water, and energy.
The climate cost of war goes beyond the battlefield. Researchers cited by the Conflict and Environment Observatory estimate that armed forces account for about 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with conflicts adding fires, fuel consumption, reconstruction, and destruction of public infrastructure.
War destroys ecosystems and weakens our ability to cope with future heat, drought, floods, and crop losses.
