Published By: The Centre d’Estudis per la Pau J.M. Delàs (Centre of Studies for Peace J.M. Delàs)
The climate emergency represents one of the most serious problems currently facing humankind. It is widely known that anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) – those released by human activities – continue to be drivers of climate change. Both armed forces and the military industry emit GHGs. Signatories to the Paris Agreement are required to report their emissions; however, reporting the activity of their armed forces remains voluntary, and many choose not to do so. Combined with the vague and fragmented information the military industry tends to provide, this makes it difficult to obtain a clear and reliable picture of the GHG emissions for which the military sector is actually responsible. This being the case, numerous researchers have attempted to evaluate these emissions using a range of methodologies and primary sources.
The lack of reliable data means that in all these studies, sufficiently well-founded assumptions or hypotheses should be made. In this work, we analyse the premises that those studies postulate with respect to the armed forces and the military industry. Based on our analysis, we conclude that some of the assumptions and hypotheses of the studies lack consistency.
This work concludes with a series of recommendations. Chiefly, that governments and defence sector companies report GHG emissions associated with the armed forces and military production, respectively. Only then will we be able to calculate the actual emissions caused by the military sector.
Authors: Xavier Bohigas, Pere Brunet, Teresa de Fortuny and Pere Ortega
You can read and download this Working Paper in English here, in Spanish here and in Catalan here.