Wars and national defense cause enormous greenhouse gas emissions. But military-related climate pollution is generally excluded from climate change emission totals, including those reported under the UNFCCC (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

Obviously, the Trump administration has been pushing US allies to shoulder more of their own security. And many European nations have already been ramping up military spending at least since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But at the same time, the US has also continued to increase its own military spending. And so have other nations around the world, from Russia and China to Pakistan, Mexico, Japan, and others.

My guest today is Ellie Kinney. She’s the Senior Climate Advocacy Officer at a UK-based NGO called the Conflict and Environment Observatory. She and her colleagues advocate for the inclusion of military emissions in national accounting for greenhouse gas pollution. They estimate that the climate costs of military activities is above 5.5% of annual global emissions. That’s nearly half the amount produced by all the world’s cars, and more than all the emissions from aviation.

I sat down with Ellie to learn why military emissions data is so hard to come by. I wanted to know what can be done to improve transparency and how the climate impact of militaries might be reduced. I wanted to better understand what strategies and innovations the Conflict and Environment Observatory and allied organizations are using in their efforts to highlight and alleviate this enormous, growing, and mostly hidden problem.

Additional resources mentioned in this episode:

• The Conflict and Environment Observatory
• https://militaryemissions.org/
• Initiative on Greenhouse Gas Accounting of War
• Benjamin Neimark and Kate Mackintosh: "How wars ravage the environment – and what international law is doing about it"
• Bellingcat

Catastrophe bonds, or cat bonds, have exploded in popularity in recent years. They have emerged as a critical financial tool to foster resilience from hurricanes and other disasters that are made worse or more frequent by climate change. By the end of 2025, more than $60 billion in cat bonds were outstanding.

The world’s leading firm in structuring cat bond transactions is Aon Securities. My guest today is its CEO, Richard Pennay. Over more than two decades, he has helped to pioneer development of this innovative financial instrument.

I sat down with Richard to learn more about how these deals work and what they’re used for. I wanted to better understand their unique role in resilience. And I was curious to know how their use may expand as the effects of climate change worsen, and as states and localities may need to shoulder more of the cost of their own recovery from disasters.

For decades, municipal bonds have made up a vital asset class for savers, retirees, and institutional investors. In the United States, that market is worth more than $4 trillion. At the same time, the revenue from issuing muni bonds pays for nearly 70% of the country’s infrastructure—everything from roads and bridges to water purification and sewage treatment plants. Yet as the effects of climate change are felt more strongly, this crucial system may face serious vulnerabilities.

My guest today is Tom Doe. He’s the founder and was the long-time CEO of a company called Municipal Market Analytics. Since the 1990s, the firm has advised well-heeled and sophisticated clients on all aspects of municipal bonds.

I sat down with Tom to better understand how this kind of climate vulnerability could play out. I wanted to know why, in spite of climate dangers, that the current effects of climate change on the muni market are still so hard to detect. And I was interested to learn how the power and resources of this vast market might be used to foster climate resilience.

Links:

• Municipal Market Analytics, Inc.