Ticking Boxes: Are Military Climate Mitigation Strategies Fit for Purpose?

Feb 19, 2024 | Linsey Cottrell
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Many sectors face difficult challenges in reducing their GHG emissions in order to achieve net-zero targets by 2050. Healthcare is estimated to be responsible for around 5% of all global GHG emissions, which is similar to the 5.5% estimate for the military. 

Are there lessons from the challenges that healthcare and health authorities face that are relevant to the military? 

In line with established practice across government, commerce and industry, military climate strategies must include meaningful policies that reduce emissions. However, because military emissions mitigation policies are at an early stage of development, and vary between countries, we have developed two 20-point checklists to help stakeholders gauge their likely effectiveness

NATO is also taking steps with its own emissions reporting, and its recent Compendium of Best Practice highlights current activities across some NATO members on climate awareness, mitigation, adaptation and outreach, including any GHG reduction targets or commitments that have already been set. The compendium does not yet provide links to all published emissions reports, and reduction strategies.