The Green Party of the United States today called for NATO to be shut down and for an expansion of measures in the Paris Climate Agreement in light of the deepening global crisis. The NATO summit and 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) are both taking place this week.
Dismantling NATO and redirecting military spending towards a Green New Deal would result both in honoring the US's pledge not to expand NATO and help to drastically reduce the U.S. military's carbon footprint, said Green Party leaders.
Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
December 6, 2019
Contacts:
Michael O’Neil, Communications Manager | meo@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Holly Hart, Co-chair, Media Committee | media@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Craig Seeman, Co-chair, Media Committee | media@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Greens noted that the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty is inadequate to address the climate change crisis. 195 nations pledged to reduce greenhouse gases. However, the pledges are not mandatory, the treaty does not require a phase-out of fossil fuels, and it delays higher aid levels for poorer nations until 2025.
"What is the point of trusting the governments who sign up to this agreement with one hand while investing ever more in fossil fuel extraction, combustion and consumption with the other? The Green Party's platform demands legally binding commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2020 and a 95% reduction by 2030 over 1990 levels," said Tina Rockett, delegate from Virginia to the Green National Committee.
"We need to slash carbon emissions to avoid the threat to end civilization as we know it," said Mark Dunlea, the Green Party of New York’s 2018 candidate for State Comptroller who ran on divesting that state’s $210 billion pension fund from fossil fuels. "We need an immediate halt to new fossil fuel infrastructure in addition to phasing out existing uses."
The United Nations International Law Commission, citing the effects of war on climate change, adopted 28 draft legal principles on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts (PERAC) in August, with the final version to be adopted in 2021.
This is especially critical as U.S. Armed Forces, with more than 800 bases in over 70 countries, is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, with a larger carbon footprint than many industrialized nations.
In response to U. S. objections to PERAC's "remnants of war" framing, which covers obligations to address the "toxic and hazardous" effects of armed conflict, the Green Party called for the U.S. to sign the Toronto treaty banning the production, stockpiling, use, and sale of land mines, and assist other nations in unearthing and disabling mines buried in their lands; and also sign the convention that will establish the decrease and inspection of all nations' stockpiles of such weapons, which the U.S. abandoned.
"Why should NATO still exist in 2019? Its purpose ended in 1990 with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Since then, NATO has continued to expand into the former east bloc countries, despite this country’s pledge not to do so," said Trahern Crews, co-chair of the Green Party of the U.S.
In light of recent reports showing that the world might already be beyond the climate-change tipping point, the Green Party has called for a WWII-scale national and international mobilization to halt climate change, the greatest threat facing the planet today.
The Green Party's Green New Deal aims to revive the U.S. economy by creating millions of jobs with a transition to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030 and investments in public transit, sustainable agriculture, conservation and restoration of critical infrastructure, including ecosystems.
The plan also calls for a Just Transition that would empower and support communities and workers most impacted by climate change and the transition to a peace economy.
For More Information
Report: 2019’s UN General Assembly debate on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts
Conflict and Environment Observatory, Dec. 2019
Law Protecting Environment from War to Get Huge Boost this Year
Weir, Doug; egoldinghrc. Humanitarian Disarmament, Jul. 2, 2019
Warsaw Pact is Gone, Why Does NATO Exist?
Gibbs, David. Institute for Public Accuracy, Dec. 2, 2019
Top 10 Reasons Not to Love NATO
Swanson, David. World Beyond War, Jan. 1`5, 2018
Report: The U.S. Military Emits More CO2 Than Many Industrialized Nations
McCarthy, Niall. Forbes, Jun. 13, 2019
Report: The U.S. Military Is Creating a Carbon Pollution Bootprint
Grossman, David. Popular Mechanics, Jun. 26, 2019
Paris Agreement targets need to be 5 times stronger to actually work
Teirstein, Zoya. Grist, Nov. 26, 2919
Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending
Dickinson, Tim. Rolling Stone, May 8, 2019
Climate emergency: world 'may have crossed tipping points’
Carrigton, Damian. The Guardian, Nov. 27, 2019
Learn more about the Green Party’s Green New Deal
Green Party Platform on Foreign Policy and Military
Green Party Platform on Climate Change
MORE INFORMATiON
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Green candidate database and campaign information
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Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
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