Launched at the Santa Marta Conference in Colombia. The Double Dividend from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative makes the case that reducing military expenditure is one of the most significant – and most politically avoided – levers available to finance a just global transition away from fossil fuels.
MEDIA RELEASE https://www.fossilfueltreaty.org/double-dividend-pr
The Double Dividend: How Reducing Military Spending Can Finance a Just Transition examines the deep structural links between militarism, fossil fuel dependence and the climate crisis. It highlights that global military spending reached a record US$2.7 trillion spending by 100 countries in 2024. In 2025, this number rose to US$2.88 trillion and could reach US$4.7 to US$6.6 trillion by 2035. Spending by the largest militaries was 30 times greater than the climate finance currently being directed towards the world’s most vulnerable nations.
The Double Dividend report maps the financing gap for a global just transition alongside military spending, examining the latter’s impact on human security, emissions, ecological destruction and international cooperation. It outlines ways in which military spending can be reduced and reallocated towards spending for climate justice and peace and recommendations for governments and civil society on how that can be achieved including via a Fossil Fuel Treaty.
Katrin Geyer, Ecological Justice Programme Manager, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom –
“At UN climate negotiations, in academic research, in the streets, people are connecting the dots. The climate crisis and rampant militarisation are escalating together, driven by the same small group of hypercapitalist, heavily armed states that profit from both. This paper makes the case that you cannot seriously address one without confronting the other. Using the proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty as a vehicle for redirecting military spending toward the just transition, we show that the benefits would extend far beyond climate financing. Less military spending means fewer emissions, less ecological destruction, fewer wars – and more space for the diplomacy, trust and cooperation that humanity urgently needs.”
Ameira Sawas, Head of Research and Policy, Fossil Fuel Treaty –
“A growing, intersectional civil society movement is connecting the dots between militarism, genocide, ecocide and climate injustice. Now, more than ever, the world needs funding for a just transition and for climate justice – not for militarism and expanding violence and injustice. This must involve a concrete plan to reallocate military spending towards the just transition and peacebuilding as part of developing a Fossil Fuel Treaty aimed at ending the expansion of oil, gas and coal; winding down existing production; and accelerating a fair transition to renewable energy with community needs at the core.”
Deborah Burton, Tipping Point North South –
“This paper is such an important step on the journey to fully bringing the big military spending nations and their fossil fuel addicted militaries into the climate finance and just transition agendas, within the framework of the Fossil Fuel Treaty. As the planet boils, it is beyond belief that those guilty parties responsible for this climate catastrophe are pumping trillions annually into war machines. There is no better moment for this paper’s release and recommendations than in Santa Marta at the First International Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels.”
Harjeet Singh, global convenor of the Fill The Fund campaign and founding director of Satat Sampada Climate Foundation –
“It is a profound display of moral bankruptcy that wealthy nations seamlessly mobilized a record US$2.88 trillion for weapons and warfare last year, yet claim the coffers are empty when developing countries demand climate finance. Right now, the richest countries are spending 30 times as much on their armed forces as they are on climate finance for vulnerable nations. Meanwhile, developing nations are losing hundreds of billions of dollars every year to devastating climate impacts they did the least to cause. It is time we urgently shift money away from wars and fossil fuels to address loss and damage and finally deliver genuine climate justice.”
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network International –
“War kills people. So does climate collapse. And right now, the money flows in the wrong direction. Governments plead poverty on climate finance while military budgets hit record highs. This is not a funding crisis. This is a political choice. And it is costing lives. What we are witnessing – from Gaza to Cuba and across oil-rich regions – is imperialist aggression and a new colonialism, dressed in the language of security. It is not separate from the climate crisis, but part of the same system: one that extracts, concentrates power, and leaves those least responsible to pay the highest price. Real security means an end to imperialist wars, preventing climate chaos and ensuring justice for those impacted by occupation, wars and climate change.”
Transform defence for sustainable human safety 