Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has directly caused or paved the way to the emission of 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, a joint report said on Thursday.
The report, published by Ukraine’s environment ministry and climate NGOs, said their estimate included both emissions that had been released and those that would be produced during repair work following the destruction caused by the February 2020 invasion.
“Billions of litres of fuel used by military vehicles, nearly a million hectares of fields and forests set ablaze, hundreds of oil and gas structures blown up and vast amounts of steel and cement used to fortify hundreds of miles of front lines,” it said.
The 175 million tonnes estimate was the equivalent to the annual emissions produced by 90 million cars, or the whole of the Netherlands in a year, it said.