Why militaries can no longer ignore climate change
Zero: The Climate Race
Bloomberg
4.7 • 219 Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The world’s militaries are incredibly polluting, collectively accounting for some 5.5% of global emissions. Western economies are now gearing up for a big expansion of their militaries, with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreeing to increase defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product by 2035. That will commit trillions of dollars more to an enormously carbon intensive industry, unless militaries can find a way to reduce their emissions. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks retired Lieutenant General Richard Nugee, author of the UK Ministry of Defence’s climate change report: Can warfare go green?
Explore further:
- Defense Budgets Need to Fight War and Climate Change, Experts Say
- Richard Nugee’s Climate Report
- Estimating the Military’s Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to: Jessica Beck, Eleanor Harrison-Dengate, Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam and Siobhan Wagner. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Akshad. |
| 0:03.8 | Each week, you lend me your ears, and now I'd like to hear from you. |
| 0:07.9 | Do you have a burning question about climate, green tech, or the future of the planet? |
| 0:12.2 | Please send your questions to us in writing or as a voice memo to Zeropod at Bloomberg.net, |
| 0:17.8 | and we'll make an episode answering them. |
| 0:20.0 | Please do include your name and |
| 0:21.4 | where you're based. Thank you. I'm Steve Strogatz. And I'm Janelle Levin. And this season on |
| 0:30.4 | The Joy of Why from Quantum Magazine, we're sitting down together. We have our own research areas, |
| 0:35.5 | but we don't always get the chance to speak deeply about |
| 0:38.0 | science and math beyond our fields. We'll ask researchers about moments big and small that inspire |
| 0:43.0 | them and lead to incredible discoveries. Lots of science news outlets provide coverage on applied |
| 0:48.3 | work like health and tech, but we cover big questions in the study of life, reality, numbers, |
| 0:53.9 | and information. |
| 0:54.8 | We hope these stories spark your curiosity, too. |
| 0:57.6 | Join us for the joy of why from Quantum Magazine. |
| 1:01.5 | Welcome to Zero. I am Akshadrati. |
| 1:03.8 | This week, can warfare go green? It's been a tense few months. |
| 1:21.4 | Just a couple of weeks ago, |
| 1:22.8 | it felt like the world was on the brink of another World War |
| 1:26.2 | when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites. |
| 1:30.3 | And while World War III may have been averted for now, there are more than 100 armed conflicts |
| 1:35.3 | still going. These wars don't just kill people, but they are also responsible for a huge |
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