June 12, 2019

 

Political momentum is building around the urgent need for the United States to address climate change, but the debate so far has overlooked a key contributor to global warming: the Pentagon.

Today  the Costs of War Project at Brown University  released new research that measures the greenhouse gas emissions of the U.S. Department of Defense, which is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world. And many of these emissions, the report shows, are due to the military’s pursuit of the post-9/11 wars.

According to Neta Crawford, the report’s author, co-director of the Costs of War Project, and professor at Boston University, the U.S. military and other national leaders are concerned about the future national security risks that climate change poses, for example in potential violent conflicts over increasingly scarce natural resources. Yet the military neglects to acknowledge that, as Dr. Crawford writes in an article published today in The Conversation, “Failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will make the nightmare scenarios strategists warn against – perhaps even ‘climate wars’ – more likely.”

The report documents that between 2001 and 2017, the years for which data is available since the beginning of the war on terrorism with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. military emitted 1,200 million (or 1.2 billion) metric tons of greenhouse gases. For reference, this is equivalent to the annual emissions of 257 million passenger cars, more than double the amount the U.S. currently has on the road. If the Department of Defense were a country, its 2017 emissions alone would have made it the 55th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, greater than entire industrialized countries such as Portugal or Sweden.

Of the total emissions between 2001 and 2017, Dr. Crawford calculates that more than 400 million metric tons of greenhouse gases are directly due to war-related fuel consumption, including the activities of the war on terrorism. This is equivalent to the destruction of 9 million mature trees (which offset the production of greenhouse gases by absorbing carbon dioxide). The largest portion of Pentagon fuel consumption is for military jets.

Estimates in the report are based on data from the Department of Energy, because, while the Pentagon calculates fuel consumption for internal planning purposes, they withhold this data from Congress.

This report highlights that current discussions of how to reduce and mitigate climate change must consider Pentagon fuel usage, a large portion of which stems directly from the current war. The U.S. military has begun to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but there is room for much steeper cuts.

The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and a key contributor to climate change. Between 2001 and 2017, the years for which data is available since the beginning of the war on terrorism with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. military emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. More than 400 million metric tons of greenhouse gases are directly due to war-related fuel consumption.

The largest portion of Pentagon fuel consumption is for military jets. These estimates are based on data from the Department of Energy because the Pentagon withholds fuel consumption data from Congress. The U.S. military has begun to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but there is room for much steeper cuts.

Read more at: www.costsofwar.org | Inquiries: costsofwar@brown.edu

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