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Decarbonize the military — mandate emissions reporting

Armed forces have a massive carbon footprint that is absent from global accounting.
  1. Mohammad Ali Rajaeifar

    1. Mohammad Ali Rajaeifar is a research associate in the School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and a researcher in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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  2. Oliver Belcher

    1. Oliver Belcher is an associate professor in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, Durham, UK.

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  3. Stuart Parkinson

    1. Stuart Parkinson is executive director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, Lancaster, UK.

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  4. Benjamin Neimark

    1. Benjamin Neimark is a senior lecturer in the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, UK.

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  5. Doug Weir

    1. Doug Weir is research and policy director at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, Hebden Bridge, UK, and a visiting research fellow in the Department of Geography, King’s College London, UK.

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  6. Kirsti Ashworth

    1. Kirsti Ashworth is a Dorothy Hodgkin research fellow at the Royal Society, London, UK.

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  7. Reuben Larbi

    1. Reuben Larbi is a research associate at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK.

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  8. Oliver Heidrich

    1. Oliver Heidrich is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and a senior lecturer at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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The world’s militaries are heavy emitters of greenhouse gases. No one knows exactly how much; estimates range between 1% and 5% of global emissions, comparable with the aviation and shipping industries (2% each). Yet militaries are largely spared from emissions reporting. This must change, or mitigation measures risk becoming mere guesswork1.

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Nature 611, 29-32 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03444-7

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Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary table and figures

Competing Interests

O.H. and his team are in part funded by the UK’s Ministry of Defence and its Defence Innovation Fund Top-Level Budget Ideas Scheme: The ViTAL Living Lab. The views expressed here are the authors’ own; no funders had input.

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