A surge in climate emissions from the war in Ukraine could cost Russia billions of dollars in additional reparations, according to carbon tracking experts and the Ukrainian government. Billions of litres of fuel used by military vehicles, nearly a million hectares of fields and forests set ablaze, hundreds of oil and gas structures blown up and vast amounts of steel and cement used to fortify hundreds of miles of front lines – the emissions from two years of invasion add up to roughly 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to the most comprehensive such study of any war to date. Read the press release here.
Serious research really helps convince reporters to take an interest. In this case, profound work by the Initiative on Greenhouse Gas Accounting of War also came with excellent contacts in the Ukrainian government, prepared to endorse the study. Despite a lack of pitching time and competition from a newsy European election results and the Bonn climate conference, the story did well, gaining around 500 media hits. Quite a few editors borrowed from the press release and ran with ‘conflict carbon’ in their headlines.
“For me the results were above expectation, given this is the report’s fourth iteration.”
IGGAW lead author, Lennard de Klerk
