Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War
The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and
a key contributor to climate change.
Between 2001 and 2017, the years for which data is available since the beginning of the war on
terrorism with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. military emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of
greenhouse gases. More than 400 million metric tons of greenhouse gases are directly due to war-
related fuel consumption. The largest portion of Pentagon fuel consumption is for military jets.
These estimates are based on data from the Department of Energy because the Pentagon withholds
fuel consumption data from Congress. The U.S. military has begun to decrease greenhouse gas
emissions, but there is room for much steeper cuts.
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Neta C. Crawford is the author of "The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions" (MIT Press, 2022). Crawford is also the author of three other books, "Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America's Post-9/11 Wars" (2013), "Soviet Military Aircraft" (1987) and "Argument and Change in World Politics" (2002), named Best Book in International History and Politics by the American Political Science Association. She has written more than two dozen peer reviewed articles on issues of war and peace. Dr. Crawford has served on the governing Board of the Academic Council of the United Nations System and on the Governing Council of the American Political Science Association. Dr. Crawford was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Science in 2023.
