April, 2024, Submission to the UNODA: the impact of the global increase in military expenditure on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In response to a call by the UN General Assembly last September, and the Pact for the Future, the UN Secretary General was asked to garner more information on the impact of the increase in military spending on the SDGs. The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs launched a Call for Papers on the impact of the global increase in military expenditure on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our submission, ‘Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: SDGs vs Rising Military Expenditures’ includes recommendations include practical routes to both reducing and redirecting military spending in favour of people and planet.
Supported by Global Justice Now, Palestinian Institute for Climate Action, Resilient40, Health Poverty Action and AFRIDED.
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February, 2023, Submission to the UNFCCC Global Stocktake: Military and Conflict Emissions
The Global Stocktake is a new UNFCCC process to gather information on GHG emissions and with seven other research and advocacy groups (Europe & USA) TPNS has made a joint submission (link to Global Stocktake information portal) military emissions.
Submission to the UNFCCC Global Stocktake: Military and Conflict Emissions
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July 2020, RESET for a Green Recovery, Post COVID-19
A cross party Parliamentary Group on the Green New Deal, chaired by Caroline Lucas MP and Clive Lewis MP, launched Reset, an inquiry to draw together the proposals from the policy community and academia and the public on how they would like life in Britain to change after Covid-19 so that it is greener and fairer. We were delighted to submit evidence to the RESET project, addressing foreign policy, defence, climate change and UK plans for COP 2021
RESET: Evidence submitted to the Reset Inquiry
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June 2018 Labour National Policy Forum consultation: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Submission on behalf of the following members of the Progressive Development Forum: Health Poverty Action; Global Justice Now; ASLEF; Tipping Point North South; Western Sahara Campaign UK
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June 2018, Written Submission National Policy Forum Submission (SDGS)
Summary and PDF
Many of the Sustainable Development Goals are impacted by conflict. SDG 16 on peaceful societies needs to go much further than presently constituted. Sustainable development requires that global runaway military spending be regarded as an international development issue. The UK is one of the world’s biggest arms traders; it has one of the world’s largest defence budgets; it has a seat on all the major global institutions and is also widely recognised for its progressive int’l development policy – often led by effective civil society campaigns. We argue that runaway global military spending must be regarded as an international development issue.
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January 2018, Written Submission: Labour’s International Development Taskforce / Shaping a new international development policy
What would a world for the many, not the few, look like in 2030? Reaping the rewards from sensible and lower military spending budgets with savings redirected to meeting increased global social justice needs. The world would more fully understand that impact of runaway military spending on the development narrative is huge. It would recognise the fact that military spending is as every bit as central to understanding power, poverty, economic crises and unjust distribution of resources as other structural campaigns such as debt, trade, tax, climate change and most recently the ‘war on drugs’. By joining the ranks of debt cancellation, Robin Hood Tax and other tax related measures, military spending savings could be regarded as yet one more significant ‘new’ revenue stream, redirecting the funds captured to serving the needs of the global community (including SDGS).
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Transform defence for sustainable human safety 