LONDON: The emissions caused by Israel’s war on Gaza as well as estimated reconstruction costs are greater than the annual footprint of 100 individual countries, new research has found.
The war caused more carbon emissions than the annual combined total of Costa Rica and Estonia in its first 15 months.
The research, published by the Social Science Research Network, was shared exclusively with The Guardian.
Destroying, clearing and rebuilding the Gaza Strip could produce 31 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), researchers from the UK and US found.
There is no obligation for states to record military emissions to the UN’s climate body, with researchers warning that the lack of accountability could lead to an underreporting of the global carbon footprint.
The study’s data, which also includes estimates of emissions relating to Hamas and Hezbollah activity, highlights the asymmetry between each side.
Hamas’s use of bunker fuel and rockets accounted for about 3,000 tCO2e, just 0.2 percent of the conflict’s total carbon footprint.
Israel’s use of weapons, equipment, tanks and ordnance produced 50 percent of emissions, the study found.
Researchers also included estimated emissions from Yemen’s Houthi militia, which has traded strikes with Israel over the course of the war. Iran and Israel’s tit-for-tat attacks, and the war in southern Lebanon, were also recorded.
All military activity arising from the Gaza war produced the equivalent, in emissions, of charging 2.6 billion smartphones or running 84 gas power plants for a year.
The figure includes the tC02e estimate — 557,359 — of the pre-war construction of Hamas’s tunnel network and Israel’s “iron wall” barrier surrounding Gaza. The findings could eventually help calculate claims for reparations, The Guardian reported.
More than 99 percent of the tCO2e generated between Oct. 7, 2023, and the temporary ceasefire in January this year was attributed to Israeli bombardment and the invasion of Gaza.
US involvement in the emissions was also highlighted by researchers. They found that almost 30 percent of greenhouse gases generated in the same period came from regular resupply flights carrying military equipment to Israel from American stockpiles in Europe.
Israel’s destruction of Gaza has produced an estimated 60 million tonnes of toxic rubble that requires clearing, producing what researchers warned would be the biggest emissions toll of the conflict.
Removing debris, rebuilding 436,000 destroyed apartments, roads, 700 schools, mosques and administrative sites will produce an estimated 29.4 million tCO2e.
Zena Agha, analyst for Palestinian policy network Al-Shabaka, said: “This report is a staggering and sobering reminder of the ecological and environmental cost of Israel’s genocidal campaign … But this is also the US, UK and EU’s war, all of which have provided seemingly limitless military resources to enable Israel to devastate the most densely populated place on the planet.
“This brings home the destabilizing (regional) impact of the Israeli settler state and its inseparability from the western military-industrial complex.”
In producing the report, researchers used open-source information, media articles and data from independent groups, including UN agencies.
Hadeel Ikhmais, head of the climate change office at the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority, said: “Wars not only kill people but also release toxic chemicals, destroy infrastructure, pollute soil, air and water resources and accelerate climate and environmental disasters.
“War also destroys climate adaptation and hinders environmental management. Not counting carbon emissions is a black hole in accountability that allows governments to get away from their environmental crimes.”
