A rapidly heating world “can’t afford a single shot,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at Tuesday’s UN climate summit, arguing that Russia’s invasion threatens international efforts to combat global warming.
Via video link to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt, Zelenskyy spoke about the environmental impact of Russia’s attack on his country – from countries’ commitments to increase their coal consumption to disrupting grain supplies and exacerbating drought-fueled food crises.
“We must stop those who, with their insane and illegal war, are destroying the world’s ability to work together for a common purpose,” he said.
Zelensky added that world leaders must tell those who don’t take climate change seriously that “they are making a catastrophic mistake.”
“They are the ones who start aggressive wars when the planet cannot afford a single shot because it needs global collective action.”
Zelenskyi said Ukraine is presenting a plan at the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to assess the impact of military actions on climate and the environment.
The fighting has destroyed at least five million acres (two million hectares) of forest in Ukraine, according to Zelensky, while a “radiation disaster” looms at the occupied Zaporozhye facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
– Renewable energies “good for safety” –
In their statements at the summit, European leaders rallied to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since February as a dangerous distraction from the grave and accelerating threats of climate change.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg earlier said at an event linked to the climate conference that the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy would be “good for our security” and to combat climate change.
He accused Russia of wanting to use “energy as a weapon”.
“It’s a stark reminder of the need to transition from dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energy,” Stoltenberg said.
He added that effective military activities would also be green in the future and suggested that armies should align their activities with the need to combat warming.
Estimates of global-warming emissions from the world’s militaries range from 1 percent to 5 percent of total global emissions, according to an op-ed published in Nature magazine last week.
That’s comparable to shipping or aviation — both around two percent, according to the paper led by researchers in the UK.
But they warned that armies are largely exempt from proper oversight, meaning efforts to cut emissions around the world risk being “advice”.
