LONDON: From fuel guzzled by fighter jets to wildfires sparked by shelling, the war in Ukraine has created vast amounts of planet-warming emissions, according to a new study that says Russia should pay for the damage to the global climate.
The first three years of conflict have generated almost 237 million metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG), equivalent to putting 120 million fossil-fuel cars on the road, or the combined annual emissions of Belgium, Austria and Ireland, according to researchers.
“This is pushing us in the wrong direction at a time when we drastically have to cut emissions,” said climate researcher Lennard de Klerk, lead author of the report tallying the war’s emissions, which was published this month.
The cost of the climate damage attributable to the war — in which hundreds of thousands have been killed on both sides — already exceeds $43 billion, de Klerk said.
“Russia should pay compensation for this damage as part of wider war reparations,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
