COP28’s Delinquent Emitter: The US Military-Industrial Complex

As the world watches COP28 in Dubai amidst an accelerating climate crisis, a critical blind spot in global climate agreements remains. Despite being the world’s largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases, the US military is completely exempt from international reporting obligations, significantly undermining global climate action.

This omission is not accidental. The US government has ensured that military emissions—which currently represent 5.5 percent of global emissions—were excluded from the annual reporting requirements of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and exempted again under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

This lack of transparency has kept military emissions masked and undercounted, allowing militaries across the world to evade oversight and accountability.