Peace +
Climate

Peace is the key enabler of the global, cooperative action required to address our climate emergency.

Military Emissions

If the world’s militaries were a country, it would have the fourth biggest carbon footprint.

But countries don’t count their military emissions, or have military emissions reduction targets, creating a significant ’emissions gap’ and making it less likely that global temperature rise can be limited to 1.5°C as specified in the Paris Agreement.

In Australia, Defence is the biggest public sector emitter, but did not report emissions between 2012 and 2023, when public pressure obliged a change in practice.

If Defence is to play a role in minimising the threat of climate change, decarbonisation alone will not be enough. It must also address how reducing military expenditure, activities and deployments, and increasing efforts towards peace and stability, can reduce emissions and minimise the threat of climate change.

MAPW is working to secure government commitment to:

  • Inclusion of military emissions from all sources and supply chains in overall calculations of Australia’s emissions
  • Transparent, accessible, independently verifiable and fully disaggregated reporting of  military emissions
  • Increased efforts towards peace, and reductions in military spending and activity

Download our 2022 briefing paper.

Learn more about the effect of military activity on the environment:

Climate Collateral; How military spending accelerates climate breakdown, Transnational Institute

The military’s contribution to climate change, Conflict and Environment Observatory

Climate change & the military, compilation of reports from Scientists for Global Responsibility

 

 

News: Peace + Climate

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Taking Action

Using a peace framework to think about climate action can mitigate securitised and competitive responses to our crisis.

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Climate change is increasingly being addressed as a ‘national security’ issue, where the predicted effects of climate change are seen as threats to social stability, geopolitical influence, and access to resources.

But a securitised approach to climate change is likely to exacerbate injustices for those most affected by the unfolding crisis, and to reinforce military power.

 

Over-emphasis on the connection between climate change and conflict also leads to nationalistic approaches to a global problem, fuels arms races, distracts from causal factors leading to conflict, and undermines other approaches to conflict resolution. 

MAPW advocates for: 

  • Investment in diplomacy and aid, and climate finance
  • Demilitarisation and reduction in military spending and activity
  • Elimination of weapons of mass destruction
  • Cooperation among nations 
  • Just and rapid systemic transformation and decarbonisation
We’re a member of the Climate Action Network Australia.
 
Learn more about the securitisation of climate change: 
 
 
 

Toxic weapons, like white phosphorus, are still used in contemporary  conflicts. Toxic remnants of war, like heavy metals, dioxins, and human carcinogens, pollute air, land and water and affect human health long after war ends. 

War destroys and degrades agriculture, biodiversity, and natural resources through use of explosive and incendiary weapons, unexploded ordnance, and the collapse of environmental governance. 

MAPW advocates for:

War + the Environment

War degrades the environment and leaves toxic legacies that cause untold harm to human health.