Some PTGND coalition members have endorsed a letter to request inclusion of military emissions in reports of GHG by members of the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The text of the letter reads, in part:
As a result of final-hour demands made by the U.S. government during negotiation of the 1997 Kyoto treaty, military greenhouse gas emissions were exempted from climate negotiations. That tradition has continued.
The 2015 Paris Agreement left cutting military greenhouse gas emissions to the discretion of individual nations.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, obliges signatories to publish annual greenhouse gas emissions, but military emissions reporting is voluntary and often not included.
NATO has acknowledged the problem but not created any specific requirements to address it.
There is no reasonable basis for this gaping loophole. War and war preparations are major greenhouse gas emitters. All greenhouse gas emissions need to be included in mandatory greenhouse gas emission reduction standards. There must be no more exception for military pollution.
We ask COP27 to set strict greenhouse gas emissions limits that make no exception for militarism, include transparent reporting requirements and independent verification, and do not rely on schemes to “offset” emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from a country’s overseas military bases must be fully reported and charged to that country, not the country where the base is located.
COP27 is the 27th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC, to be held in Sharm-el Sheik, Egypt, in November 2022.
Members of our coalition, including individuals and chapters of the Sierra Club and the Washington statewide network of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), have endorsed the letter. UUA this past summer passed an Action of Immediate Witness resolution along the same lines as the letter.
For more information and a form for signing the letter, click here.
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