Dear friends and supporters,

We hope this e-news roundup finds you well as we approach the holiday season. We have had a busy year taking our work on military emissions and spending to more new audiences internationally. Wider global civil society is now including military spending as part of its overall climate finance demands and military emissions are now widely acknowledged as a significant contributor to climate change inside the COP space.

But in 2024 it was the genocide in Gaza that brought the intersection of militarism and the climate emergency into the wider civil society arena. Just as our film We Are Many illustrated how the Iraq War mobilised a new generation on anti-war protest, so both Ukraine and Gaza have combined to bring this issue of military emissions and war-spending to the wider climate justice movement.

The challenge now is two-fold: pushing forward on the various routes identified to get nations to fully report their military emissions and for the UNFCCC to play its part in making that happen; and coupled with this developing the policy and advocacy work that will enable more nations to engage with the sensible – and urgent – calls for the wasted military spending trillions to instead be spent on climate finance.

From presentations to publications to events, this year has proven to be productive and the highlights below give a sense of the progress being made. However, we could not do it without support from our funders and individual donors. Thank-you.

So as we end this year, our thoughts are with the people of Gaza. We cannot begin to imagine how much they want the horror to end. Find out how you can support Medical Aid for Palestinians here.

Season’s Greetings,
Dionne, Deb, Ho-Chih & all at TPNS.

HIGHLIGHTS 2024

PALESTINE

We end the year with the State of Palestine speaking out on military emissions. On 9 December it gave its powerful Oral Statement to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change.

It specifically addressed conflict emissions with the ongoing war in Gaza as an example. Specifically, Palestine requested the Court to provide specific guidance in the advisor opinion on state responsibility for GHG emissions resulting from “armed conflicts, other military activities including occupation”. His Excellency Ammar Hijazi (Head of Mission State of Palestine to the Netherlands) delivered an incredibly powerful, thorough and moving statement. Prof Kate Mackintosh (UCLA/Netherlands) follows on with an equally damning presentation of the statistics.

This submission is a turning point in this effort to get the big militaries accountable for their emissions – and the trillions spent on militaries by their governments. We can but hope that the ICJ decides to include legal obligations of states for those emissions in the advisory opinion next year.
Watch here (scroll to 1hr 40mins). TPNS submission to UNFCCC Global Stocktake cited by Prof Kate Mackintosh.

CLIMATE CONFERENCES

COP29 BAKU

As many predicted, on the main issue of climate finance for global south countries, November’s COP29 in Azerbaijan was indeed the failure many dreaded. Rich nations held to their position that they were unable to reach the public funding levels needed and – as feared – ended up relying on private finance and loans to shore up their paltry and insulting $300bn in order to reach the $1trillion plus annually needed. This, in turn, was increasingly compared to the $2.4 trillion spent on the global military in 2023. It was very encouraging to see the relevance of public military spending to the climate finance demands made loud and clear at this COP2 and for TPNS to play its part in this issue ‘breaking out’ inside the official COP space.

Read more about our COP29 participation –meetings, side event, actions, open letters, press conference, media summary and COP29 publications here. Military emissions, military spending & the “COP of peace” blog.

BONN CLIMATE CONFERENCE

The Bonn UN Climate Change Conference is a midway point in June each year in the lead up to the annual COP and our focus was to widen awareness on links between military emissions, military spending and climate finance. In May we published our briefing for an excess profits tax on the arms industry, along with advocating for public military spending to be considered as a legitimate source for climate finance within the wider climate justice movement. It was a pleasant surprise to see the Arab Group and G77+China offer a proposal for developed countries to raise $441 billion by adopting targeted domestic measures” such as a “financial transaction tax”, a defence company tax, a fashion tax and a “Big Tech Monopoly Tax”.

Gaza had put militarism in the spotlight and public military spending was also referenced at a number of key side events and press conferences. Mohamed Adow, Director of Powershift Africa and a leading media spokesperson on climate and climate finance spoke about military emissions and spending at a CAN Int’l press conference on Gaza.

BONN MEDIA

Guardian The Guardian reported on how our briefing shows that military spending increases greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate News Tax on Arms Industry.
ECO magazine (CAN Intl) covers military spend/climate finance and ref TPNS ‘correlation between spending and emissions’.
Scoop NZ – UNFCCC and War.
Politico TPNS’ submission to UN Global Stocktake

TPNS attendance at BONN & COP29 was supported Quaker UN Office and the Movement for the Abolition of War.

GLOBAL WEEKS OF ACTION

September saw two important global weeks of action.

PAYUP AND PHASEOUT was led by Climate Action Network International with a different focus for each day of the week (eg tax, debt). Day 4 was Demilitarisation Day of Action. TPNS comms were carried on the day across the movement. We called for urgent pressure to address the role and responsibility of runaway military expenditure in the climate emergency through the allocation of trillions of dollars to fossil-fuel reliant militaries and associated (supply-chain) industries instead of climate finance. Report, graphics and messages here.

GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION FOR PEACE & CLIMATE JUSTICE followed on and was the first annual week of action for peace and climate justice. The week of action raised awareness of the links between war, militarism and climate injustice. It also coincided with the UN Summit of the Future. This year’s theme was ‘divest from war – invest in climate justice’.

PRESENTATIONS

CLIMATE ACTION INTERNATIONAL

In February TPNS was invited to present its work on military emissions and military spending in relation to climate finance at the Annual Strategy Meeting of the Climate Action Network International. The four-day gathering welcomed 120 CAN representatives from all over the world to plan the coming year’s work on the escalation of climate finance demands. Read more here.

DEGROWTH CONFERENCE MILITARY EMISSIONS & SPENDING

In June it was a pleasure to be part of the 10th International Degrowth Conference in Pontevedra, Spain. With an attendance of more than 1100 people from 48 different countries, the conference had the participation of academics, activists, students and teachers of secondary education. Presentation here.

PUBLICATIONS

Excess profits tax on arms industry report. Shared widely with NGOs and climate networks.

WILPF’s Bonn briefing. Towards Climate Justice: Redistributing Military Spending to Climate Finance; TPNS 5% military spending proposals.

Queen Mary University of London interactive policy briefing. TPNS contribution to this publication addressed our call for military emissions to be included in the next landmark IPCC Special Report on Cities. Edited by colleague Benjamin Neimark at QMUL it has contributions from a range of researchers, academics and campaigners including Prof Neta Crawford (Costs of War) and Stuart Parkinson (SGR).

Climate in the Crosshairs Updated Briefing (TPNS/TNI/Stop Wappenhandel). This briefing updates the statistics in Climate Crossfire launched at COP28 and is a companion piece to ‘Climate Collateral: How military spending accelerates climate breakdown’.

Summit of the Future: Briefing Climate Change, Climate Finance & Global Military
Released with with an accompanying letter to the UN Secretary General at the time of the UN General Assembly.

Commission: Overturning the economics of war to deliver a co-operative future and peaceful green prosperity’ War and Peace—Exploring Irish Neutrality. Published by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.

Why public military spending matters to climate finance discussions COP29 Briefing.

WEBINARS

GREEN PARTY USA. In November, TPNS was delighted to be invited to join speakers for a Green Party USA webinar on degrowth. Ho-Chih spoke to his work on the military and degrowth. Ho-Chih’s presentation is here.

GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION The COP of Peace Addressing Militarism for Climate Justice.
As part of the first annual Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice in September the Peace and Demilitarization Working Group presents a webinar on divesting from war and investing in climate justice with the support of CAN International.

MAW From COP28-COP29 Reflecting on COP28 in Dubai with specific reference to TPNS events on military emissions and spending and to reflect on the activities throughout 2024 which will deepen awareness and action on both issues as we move towards COP29 in Azerbaijan.

GCOMS AGM COP28 Dubai Report The AGM focussed on military emissions and the climate crisis. Deborah reported back on her experiences of COP28 and the side events which focussed on military emissions.