150 million tonnes and counting: The carbon footprint of the Russia-Ukraine war

The world is witnessing a surge in conflicts, posing severe consequences for both individuals and the environment . In 2023, approximately 56 active conflicts were documented globally, including the recent one involving Israel and Hamas. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine also remains unresolved. Notably, global military spending has reached an unprecedented peak. While the cost of violent conflict is frequently calculated in terms of civilian deaths, injuries, and infrastructure devastation, the environmental cost of war and its long-term influence on the climate is sometimes overlooked. Here’s what we know about the carbon emission of the Ukraine war. 150 million tonnes of CO2 emissions Russia’s invasion of Ukraine launched in February last year accounts for around 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, a deputy Ukrainian minister cited experts as saying on Monday. “The war has a devastating impact on the environment. Air, soil and water is polluted as a result of the fighting,” Viktoria Kireyeva, Ukraine’s deputy minister of environmental protection and natural resources, said in Dubai. “The total amount of emissions after 18 months of war is estimated to be 150 million tonnes of CO2, which is more than the annual emission of a highly developed country like Belgium,” she said at a conference on the sidelines of the COP28 climate conference. [caption id=“attachment_13465942” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The construction sector is responsible for at least 37 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the United Nations. AP[/caption] The estimate comes from the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War, a group of experts studying the climate impact of the Ukraine war. “The warfare itself is 25 per cent of those emissions,” mostly due to fossil fuel consumption by the Russian and Ukrainian armies, one of the experts, Lennard de Klerk, told the conference. Numerous fires, which are particularly frequent along the front line because of the fighting, account for 15 per cent. The experts also took into account emissions due to the movement of refugees and detours for planes avoiding Ukraine. But the biggest share of estimated emissions — 54.7 million tonnes, or around a third of the total — is a projection of the climate costs of rebuilding towns and cities left in ruins by the war. The construction sector is responsible for at least 37 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the United Nations. Kireyeva said Ukraine “will recover but it will additionally cost a significant amount of emissions”, adding that Russia should be held “accountable” for this. With inputs from AFP