Climate change and nuclear weapons are two existential threats to human survival that share a number of connections, according to participants at Nuclear Weapons & Climate Change, an intergenerational symposium that was held at Central Hall Westminster in London and online last week (Thursday, 9 September 2021).
Over 300 legislators, experts, government officials and representatives of civil society organizations from more than 60 countries met with youth leaders in the climate action and nuclear disarmament movements to discuss effective action to address these two existential threats to current and future generations.
The event, held in commemoration of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, was co-organised by Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, the Kazakhstan Embassy to the UK, Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation and Youth Fusion.
Connections between climate change and nuclear disarmament
The event highlighted that climate change and nuclear weapons, in addition to being the two most serious threats to the survival of human civilization, share other similarities and connections:
- The impacts of climate change emissions and the use of nuclear weapons are trans-border and transgenerational. They cannot be contained in either time nor space – impacting globally and far into the future;
- Neither issue can be resolved solely at national levels, but require international cooperation and the building of common security;
- Climate change stimulates conflicts that could spill over into nuclear conflict, while any use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict would create catastrophic climatic consequences, compounding the current impact of climate change emissions;
- The human and financial resources currently devoted to nuclear weapons are desperately required to instead be invested in assist carbon emission reduction and climate stabilisation.
Effective measures to address the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change
Lord Hannay of Chiswick, Co-Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation, in his opening keynote address, outlined the key challenges associated with nuclear weapons and climate change.
On the nuclear weapons issue, he called for progress on key measures including adoption of a new START treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the USA, a renewal of the Iran nuclear deal and a renewed dialogue of the P5 (China, France, UK, Russia and USA) in Strategic Stability which should include consideration of the adoption of no-first-use policies. (For more on no-first-use policies see NoFirstUse Global).
On the climate issue, Lord Hannay highlighted the importance of the COP 26 conference in Glasgow in November this year, and the need to ensure monitoring and implementation of climate agreements, which have been lacking so far.
Most important in both nuclear disarmament and climate protection is building political commitment. “We cannot afford to say that the global challenges outlined today are too many to ask the international community to take on at one time,’ said Lord Hannay. ‘We do not realistically have the choice to address them sequentially. We need to find the political will and the resources to deal with them now.”
Inter-generational panels
Youth leaders in climate action and nuclear disarmament who spoke in the panel sessions. From left to right: Marie-Claire Graf (Switzerland), Global North Focal Point for YOUNGO, the Children and Youth constituency to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Aigerim Seitenova (Kazakhstan), Member of OSCE Core Group of Youth Experts; Nicole Ann Ponce(Philippines), Co-Founder of the I am Climate Justice movement, Core Team Member of World's Youth for Climate Action; Kehkashan Basu (UAE/Canada),Founder and CEO of The Green Hope Foundation. Member of the World Future Council. Winner. 2016 Children's International Peace Prize. Winner of the 2020 Voices Youth Gorbachev-Shultz Legacy Award for Nuclear Disarmament.
The event featured four inter-generational panels on the topics Impacts of nuclear weapons testing and use, Nuclear war and climate change, Move the nuclear weapons money and Legal actions to address nuclear weapons and climate change.
For reports on these panels, please see Legislators, experts, officials and youth discuss climate change and nuclear disarmament connections at special London event.
Military carbon footprint - move the nuclear weapons money
Key issues raised in the event related to the negative influence of the nuclear arms industry, high carbon footprint of the military, massive budgets and investments allocated to military purposes including nuclear weapons and the importance of shifting these budgets and investments to addressing climate stabilisation and sustainable development. This framework is also the focus of the global Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign.
Dr Philip Webber, Chair of Scientists for Global Responsibility, compared the global investment required for to stabilise the climate (about $1trillion annually) with the current investments in climate stabilisation (about $400 billion) and the global military budget (about $2 trillion) to demonstrate that the shortfall is about 1/3 of the global military budget. Dr Weber then focused on the UK situation and demonstrated that the UK investments required to meet a net zero 2030 target would be an even smaller percentage of the UK military budget.
He noted that the UK military carbon footprint is about 11 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent – equal to the annual emissions of 6 million cars. In addition, if the UK Trident nuclear weapons were ever used, this would would cause catastrophic climatic consequences. Finally, Dr Webber noted that if funds were re-directed from military to climate action, 5 times as many jobs would be created. (See Dr Webber’s presentation - PDF version or Power point version).
Slide from presentation of Dr Webber comparing UK military spending with the funding required to achieve net zero carbon by 2050, or more ambitiously by 2030.
Slide from Dr Weber's presentation explaining why nuclear-armed countries continue to increase their spending on nuclear weapons despite these funds being required to address the climate crisis.
Closing remarks: action to protect people and the planet
In his closing remarks, Ambassador Idrissov reminded the audience of the significance of Central Hall Westminster, the venue for this event. “In this very premises in January 1946, the very first session of the United Nations General Assembly took place,” said Ambassador Idrissov. ‘And the very first resolution adopted by this UN session established a special commission of the Security Council to ensure the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. It is sad that 75 years later, we are still struggling to implement this resolution.”
One of the initiatives of Kazakhstan has been a call on the UN and its member states to commit to achieving the goal of nuclear weapons elimination no later than 2045, the 100thanniversary of the UN. Civil society is supporting this call, and other more immediate nuclear disarmament measures, with Protect People and the Planet: Appeal for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World (still open for endorsement).
A civil society appeal to prevent nuclear war, eliminate nuclear weapons and redirect nuclear weapons budgets and investments to instead support public health, COVID-19 recovery, the climate and sustainable development. Open for endorsement.
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