Report: War in Ukraine Worsens Climate Crisis

2023-06-09

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  • The war in Ukraine is worsening the climate crisis, a new report says.
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  • A group of researchers will present the report this week at the United Nations climate meeting in Bonn, Switzerland.
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  • The scientists report that the first 12 months of the war will lead to increased production of waste gases that heat the planet.
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  • They say they expect the increase will amount to about 120 million metric tons of gas emissions, or release.
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  • That is equal to a year's worth of emissions by the country of Belgium.
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  • Dutch expert Lennard de Klerk is the lead writer of the report, Climate Damage Caused By Russia's War in Ukraine.
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  • He led a team of researchers investigating the creation of war-linked emissions.
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  • The causes include fuel use for vehicles, forest fires, changes in energy use in Europe and the future rebuilding of buildings and roads.
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  • "We didn't expect the emissions of war would be so significant," said de Klerk by phone from his home in Hungary near the border with Ukraine.
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  • Carbon accounting will be an important subject of discussion at the COP28 climate meeting in Dubai this year.
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  • Countries will measure progress against climate goals agreed to in Paris in 2015.
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  • De Klerk said it was very important that military emissions were included.
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  • "The aim that we all should have is to get to net zero (carbon emissions) by 2050, including the military,
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  • but if you don't know what the military emissions are, it's very difficult to start work on policies to reduce them," de Klerk said.
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  • The European Climate Foundation and the Environmental Policy and Advocacy Initiative in Ukraine paid for the research and report.
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  • Almost half of the estimated increase in emissions since the Ukraine war started in February 2022 is connected to the expected rebuilding and repairing needs.
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  • The fighting has destroyed or damaged many roads, factories and other structures and systems.
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  • About 19 percent of the emissions come from military activities like vehicle fuel use, making and firing weapons and building defensive structures.
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  • The total also includes planet-warming gas production linked to the conflict but happening outside Ukraine.
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  • That includes gas leaks from the destroyed Nord Stream pipeline, the redirects of international flights and the movement of refugees.
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  • The report said there had been a drop in Ukraine's own economic activity due to the conflict.
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  • But it said emissions related to those activities had mainly moved to other countries.
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  • The report also said there was a drop in emissions in Europe linked to lower flows of Russian gas and a drop in electricity usage from higher energy costs.
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  • But that decrease had almost all been offset by increases in the use of oil, coal and liquified natural gas.
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  • Carbon accounting expert de Klerk said government reports on military-linked emissions are often unclear and inexact.
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  • Emissions created by armies in foreign territory are not counted, and annexed territories are sometimes double-counted, he said.
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  • Other studies have attempted to measure emissions from conflicts.
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  • A project called Costs of War at Brown University in Rhode Island measured emissions from American military activities outside the U.S. between 2001 and 2018.
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  • The researchers reported that the U.S. military's activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria created 440 million metric tons of emissions.
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  • I'm Dan Novak.