NATO 2% Spending Goal Could Divert $2.6 Trillion from Climate Finance, says environmentalists

By Obiabin Onukwugha

Environmentalists have expressed worry that NATO’s goal of 2% spending of GDP on the military will accelerate climate breakdown by diverting millions of dollars from climate finance and increasing greenhouse gas emissions by 2028.

The environmentalists in a new report of a research conducted, called for urgent ‘climate dividend’, which they said is similar to the ‘peace dividend’ that was won with the end of the Cold War.

The report, Climate Crossfire, produced by the international research organization, Transnational Institute, together with Stop Wapenhandel (Netherlands) and Tipping Point North South (UK), estimated the likely financial implications as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result if all NATO members meet their commitment to increase military spending to a minimum of 2% of GDP.

According to the findings, NATO’s military spending this year, which amounts to $1.26 trillion will pay for 12 years of promised climate finance of $100 billion a year.

It said if all NATO members meet its 2% military spending targets, it would divert an estimated additional US$2.57 trillion by 2028 away from climate spending, which would be enough to pay for climate adaptation costs for all low and middle-income countries for seven years.

It also said NATO’s estimated military carbon footprint this year, which is 205 million tCO2e, is comparable to the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of many countries.

The report further stated that the biggest danger of NATO’s 2% military spending goals is that it is encouraging a worldwide arms race even as Global military spending in 2022 reached record highs of $2.24 trillion.

Nnimmo Bassey, former president of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), and Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria (HOMEF), in a foreword to the report, described war as an act of climate denial.

‘Wars kill people, extinguish biodiversity, and destroy the infrastructure that could otherwise provide safeguards in the face of extreme weather events. Warfare is an act of climate denial”, he stated.

Co-author of the report, Nick Buxton of Transnational Institute also said that the report shows that the climate has tragically become the latest victim in the crossfire of war.

Buxton said there is a closing window of time to address climate crisis, but that the world’s political leaders were more focused on arming themselves to the teeth than prioritising climate action.

Brixton noted that NATO’s 2% minimum spending goals were adding fuel to the climate fire, diverting much needed resources and increasing greenhouse emissions, and called for the urgent need to de-escalate tensions and find peaceful solutions to conflicts if global leaders are to defend the planet.

Co-authors of the report, Dr Ho-Chih Lin and Deborah Burton of Tipping Point North South, on their part posited that the stark reality facing politicians is that there is need to reduce military spending significantly and this will require a new approach to security, one invested in building diplomacy, peace and climate resilience rather than war.

Wendela de Vries, a researcher at StopWapenhandel, Dutch Campaign Against the Arms Trade concluded by saying: “High military budgets lead to more emissions, which is not making the world safer. The big winner is the arms industry whose profits are skyrocketing. As the planet reaches a climate tipping point, it is insane that we are investing in making arms dealers even richer, rather than protecting those whose lives are being devastated by climate breakdown.”