WHAT ABOUT WAR? Essential for security or a dangerous distraction from climate action?

Fossil vs Future

War engages our fight or flight instincts. When immediate threats like conflict arise, they often overshadow slower-burning, long-term crises like climate change.

In this episode, James and Daisy talk about war. How does climate change fuel conflict? How does war, in turn, hinder efforts to combat the climate crisis? How do we avoid trading one existential threat for another?

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Conflict and Environment Observatory – CEOBS was launched in 2018 with the primary goal of increasing awareness and understanding of the environmental and derived humanitarian consequences of conflicts and military activities.
• The Military Emissions Gap – This site is dedicated to tracking, analysing and closing the military emissions gap, bringing together the data that governments report into one place.

OTHER ADVOCATES, FACTS, AND RESOURCES:

• NATO (2023) – Here are some remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
• ND-GAIN Country Index – Summarizes a country's vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges in combination with its readiness to improve resilience.
• United Nations – Today, of the 15 countries most vulnerable to climate change, 13 are struggling with violent conflicts.
• Sir Christopher John Greenwood - After being called to the Bar by Middle Temple, he became a Fellow of Magdalene in 1978 and later Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics, specialising in international humanitarian law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999 and elected by the United Nations as a Judge of the International Court of Justice in 2008. That same year, Magdalene named him an Honorary Fellow.
• The Third Man –A classic thriller written by Graham Greene and starring Orson Welles in which a writer sets about investigating the death of a friend in post-World War II Vienna.
• Stop Ecocide International – Ecocide law provides a route to justice for the worst harms inflicted upon the living world in times of both peace and conflict, whenever and wherever they are committed.
• CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) – CND campaigns to rid the world of nuclear weapons - the most powerful and toxic weapons ever created, threatening all forms of life.
• Stop the War Coalition – Stop the War was founded in September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11, when George W. Bush announced the “war on terror”. Stop the War has since been dedicated to preventing and ending the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.

• UK Parliament (2024) – In the 2023/24 financial year, the UK spent £53.9 billion on defence.
• UK Parliament (2025) – The Prime Minister has committed to spend 2.5% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) on defence by 2027.
• UK Parliament (2025) - The Prime Minister said the government would “fully fund our increased investment in defence” by reducing aid spending from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% in 2027.
• Ministry of Defence (2024) – In 2022, total military expenditure of NATO members was $1,195bn and total worldwide military expenditure was $2,240bn, as estimated by SIPRI. The USA was the world’s largest spender, accounting for 39% of the total global spending.
• The Week (2025) – Only 11% of people aged 18-27 say they would fight for the UK.
• Reuters (2025) - Poland wants to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2026. Poland now spends a higher proportion of GDP on defence than any other NATO member, including the United States. It plans for this year's spending to hit 4.7% of GDP.
• Institute for Security Studies – The global military carbon footprint currently accounts for around 5.5% of global emissions – more than Africa’s entire footprint.

• Listen to War by Edwin Starr here!

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Music: “Just Because Some Bad Wind Blows” by Nick Nuttall, Reptiphon Records. Available at https://nicknuttallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/just-because-some-bad-wind-blows-3

Producer: Podshop Studios

Huge thanks to Siobhán Foster, a vital member of the team offering design advice, critical review and organisation that we depend upon.

Stay tuned for more insightful discussions on navigating the transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable future.