Meanwhile, the US government says its armed forces emit 56m tonnes of CO 2e but, while there are bigger gaps in the data, SGR estimates it to be significantly higher at 205m tonnes. The UK-based company with the largest carbon emissions is BAE Systems, whose emissions account for about 30% of the UK arms industry’s total output.Ī recent report from SGR and the Conflict and Environment Observatory estimated the carbon footprint of EU armed forces in 2019 to total 24.8m tonnes of CO 2e, with France accounting for about a third of that. That is roughly the amount 6m average cars would emit annually. The Ministry of Defence says the UK military’s total annual carbon footprint is 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2e), but SGR estimates the true figure to be 11m tonnes. The seriousness with how these nations deal with this issue will affect action in other sectors and in other nations.”

“With military spending rapidly rising, this loophole is set to grow at a time when other emissions are falling. “Military carbon emissions matter because they are a potentially large loophole in the Paris targets – especially for the high military spenders like the US, China, UK, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and France,” he said.

SGR’s executive director, Dr Stuart Parkinson, said that as military spending increased, the loophole continued to grow.

Campaigners say the current situation, whereby it is only voluntary for states to include armed forces in their carbon-cutting obligations, is undermining efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

Costs of tanks in the military graph