Trump’s $1tn for Pentagon to add huge planet-heating emissions, study shows. Exclusive: 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of some entire countries

A man running in a heatwave, and Donald Trump speaking during military parade. Composite: Getty Images

Donald Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO₂e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals.

The Pentagon’s 2026 budget – and climate footprint – is set to surge to $1tn thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Act, a 17% rise on last year.

Military emissions are closely tied to military spending.

The budget bonanza will push the Pentagon’s total greenhouse emissions to a staggering 178 Mt of CO₂e, resulting in an estimated $47bn in economic damages globally, according to new analysis by the Climate and Community Institute (CCI), a US-based research thinktank, shared exclusively with the Guardian.

The huge increase in military spending comes amid worsening climate breakdown, and as Americans – many of them Trump voters – are being hit by destructive extreme weather events such as wildfires, extreme heat and the recent floods in Texas, as well as sea-level rise and other slow-onset climate effects.

Trump’s 2026 budget legislation slashes federal funding for science, education, Medicaid, food stamps, emergency management, the National Weather Service and humanitarian aid – in order to pay for the military expansion, tax cuts for the wealthy, and Trump’s violent immigration crackdown. Trump has also withdrawn the US from the Paris climate accords for the second time, and rolled back Biden-era investments in renewable energies such as solar and wind that are key to weaning the US off fossil fuels in order to curtail climate catastrophe.

The US is the largest historical contributor to the climate crisis, and currently the second worst emitter after China – a country with quadruple the population.

Emitting 178 Mt of CO₂e would make the US military and its industrial apparatus the 38th largest emitter in the world if it were its own nation – and more than the entire annual carbon footprint of Ethiopia, a country of 135 million people.

“Every extra dollar grows the Pentagon’s carbon bootprint – and shrinks the chances for a livable future. With this additional funding from the big beautiful bill, the US’s trillion-dollar war machine will be responsible for more emissions than 138 individual countries,” said Patrick Bigger, lead author and CCI research director.

“Supposedly this spending is for national security. But what security is there in more droughts, floods, hurricanes, and rising seas?”  ... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/17/trump-pentagon-emissions 

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