News
Publication: Disarming the Climate Crisis: the True Cost of Militarism
Peace Boat has released a new publication, "Disarming the Climate Crisis: The True Cost of Militarism". The report is the collective expertise of speakers at a side event held during The UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. The side event Disarming the Climate Crisis: The True Cost of Militarism was organized by Peace Boat, together with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Peace Track Initiative. It convened researchers, advocates and community leaders to examine how militarism accelerates climate breakdown and obstructs climate justice.
Opening the event, moderator Karen Hallows, International Coordinator at Peace Boat and Co-Lead of the Peace and Demilitarisation Working Group of the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), emphasised the systematic exclusion of militarism from climate policy. Militarism, she noted, is not confined to armies or weaponry; it is an organising system that prioritises domination, extraction and control over care, cooperation and justice. Rooted in patriarchal power structures, militarism fuels conflict, drives inequality and diverts trillions of dollars away from effective climate solutions. Military emissions are not required for reporting under the UNFCCC, are absent from Nationally Determined Contributions, and military spending remains outside climate finance frameworks. Likewise, extractivism, occupation and nuclear violence are treated as external to climate policy rather than systemic drivers of harm.
Speakers/ Contributors:
Ellie Kinney, Senior Climate Advocacy Officer, Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS)
Deborah Burton, Co-Founder, Tipping Point North South
Maria Reyes, Global Outreach Coordinator, Fossil Fuel Non- Proliferation Treaty Initiative
Natalia Chaves Monroy, Women, Peace and Security Coordinator, WILPF Colombia Ana Sánchez, Global Energy Embargo for Palestine
Ana Celestial, Coordinator, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
Selina Leem, Poet and Climate Advocate, Marshall Islands
Karen Hallows, International Coordinator, Peace Boat