“It’s a sector with significant emissions and no one has really taken on this problem,” pointed out Axel Michaelowa, head of the international climate policy research group at the University of Zurich, during a debate.
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Comparatively, civil aviation and maritime transport represent approximately 2% each.
The largest armed forces are those of the United States. If they were a country, their emissions per inhabitant would be the highest in the world, equivalent to 42 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to experts' comments in Nature.
'Politics and lack of experts'
Every 100 nautical miles traveled by a US Air Force F-35 fighter jet is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of a car in the United Kingdom, these experts estimate.
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Ukraine calculated emissions directly and indirectly related to the Russian invasion on February 24, a first for a country at war.
Refugee movements represent the equivalent of 1,4 million tons of CO2; forest, agricultural field or building fires, 23,8 million; the fighting, 8,9 million, and the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed during the seven months of war would represent the emission of 48,7 million tons, according to the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War project.
This initiative to account for greenhouse gases from war was created two months after the invasion of Ukraine.
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The total represents around 83 million tons. For comparison purposes, emissions in the Netherlands in the same period total 100 million tons, indicates the group's report.
“This shows everything we don’t know about other conflicts, past and present. We’ve never had this kind of detail about Iraq, Syria or other wars,” commented Deborah Burton, from Tipping Point North South.
(with AFP)
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War in Ukraine: everything you need to know about the conflict
Click to read more news about the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory⤴️
