Rohan Chakravarty’s Green Humour Nails the War-vs-Climate Dilemma

When War Bills Are Made the Climate Charge

The cartoons of Green Humour by Rohan Chakravarty have the talent of telling the ugly truth in a simple way. This one of his, the March 2026 comic ‘Climate goals vs. war targets,’ summarizes something that most policy news stories push down the page: governments are de-carbonizing, at the same time spending more money than ever before on weapons and wars that nullify those efforts.

The money trail

The military expenditure in the world reached 2.7 trillion in 2024. The following year, the world emissions had been on the increase. The UN reports that the emissions must reduce by 35-55 percent by the year 2035. These two facts are pulling in opposite directions.

The hidden carbon problem

The vast majority of people are unaware of the fact that military emissions are not counted correctly. The countries may either report themselves or not report at all. Almost never included is the supply chain, weaponry production and the price of the bombing city rebuilding. Scientists put the real military emissions at ten to fourteen times that of the records.

What was actually costing the atmosphere were wars. In four years, the Russia-Ukraine war has led to more than 311 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Another 33 million tonnes were transferred during fifteen months of the Gaza conflict. Most of that number is not based on combat but reconstruction. The reconstruction using steel and concrete has its huge carbon cost.

What could change by 2030

The actual issue is not whether it is either security or climate. It is dealing with them as a single issue. Reducing the use of fossil fuels in the military logistics, compelling the truthful emissions reporting, and electrification of supply chains would reinforce security and climate objectives. The first countries that compute that will be the most robust ones that will be standing.