Climate issues increasingly sidelined as arms race intensifies

Increasingly countries of Asia are falling victim to environmental crises and going forward it is hoped that this question of the first importance will come to be investigated with greater thoroughness by the scientific community worldwide.

- BY LYNN OCKERSZ

It should be seen as no accident that some major countries of Southeast Asia and now Sri Lanka are suffering the worst of climate change issues and one area that needs further probing is the link between the arms race and these aggravating climate change traumas.

Of paramount importance is the escalating arms spending at present by the world's major powers and their allies. It is common knowledge that the international weapons industry is a major factor in the aggravation of global warming and by conservative estimates the contribution of the world's arms industry to greenhouse gas emissions, for example, is approximately 5.5 percent. It goes without saying that global warming would only intensify in proportion to which the present armed conflicts continue to rage, considering that the arms manufacturing process is a major causative factor in the emission of excessive heat, besides other elements that negatively impact the natural environment.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) disclosed some of the most thought-provoking statistics in this regard. It is on record that revenues derived from weapons and military services by the world's 100 largest arms-producing companies 'reached a record $679 billion in 2024'. Companies based in Europe and the US were seen as leading from the front in the globe-wide revenue-extraction resulting from the escalation of such arms sales. Besides, the combined arms revenues of weapons manufacturers featuring among the topmost of these enterprises grew by 3.8 percent in 2024 to reach $334 billion, it is reported.