{"id":3789,"date":"2024-10-18T11:36:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T08:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uanimals.org\/media\/bez-katehorii\/rozmova-z-fakhivtsem-iz-klimatychnykh-zmin-lennardom-de-klerkom\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T19:30:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T17:30:17","slug":"rozmova-z-fakhivtsem-iz-klimatychnykh-zmin-lennardom-de-klerkom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uanimals.org\/media\/en\/interviu-en\/rozmova-z-fakhivtsem-iz-klimatychnykh-zmin-lennardom-de-klerkom\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt Might Be That These Extra Emissions Caused by russia Will Cause Flooding in Bangladesh or Fire in Amazon\u201d \u2014 Climate Specialist Lennard De Klerk"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Militaries worldwide emit greenhouse gases that accelerate global warming. russia, with all its emissions caused by war, is accelerating the process even more. Meanwhile, we are no more than four years away from a 1.5\u00b0C rise in the global average annual temperature relative to pre-industrial levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can anything still be done?<\/p>\n

Olha Chevhaniuk, Head of Strategic Initiatives at UAnimals, talked about this with Lennard de Klerk <\/span>live on air<\/span><\/a>. We share the highlights of this conversation. <\/span>\u00a0<\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

A Little Green Capitalist<\/h2>\n

I grew up in a Dutch village with three older brothers. All of us brothers had several nicknames. One of my nicknames was Green Capitalist. <\/span>Capitalist<\/span><\/i> \u2014 because I didn\u2019t mind making money, <\/span>Green <\/span><\/i>came because I was always concerned about the environment and cleaning up our mess.<\/span><\/p>\n

My father had a factory. He produced packaging material for flowers, which is very fitting for the Netherlands. As a child during summers, I worked in the factory, and because of that, I became interested in the environment. You know, see all the plastic, you have waste materials\u2026 I was often working with a small recycling machine, trying to reuse the plastic materials. It was already a circular economy in the early days.<\/span><\/p>\n

I started my studies in the early nineties when the Soviet Union fell apart. I realized that we in the West had no clue about what we called the East block, about all these different countries and nations. My parents had a satellite dish and I was playing a lot with it. I managed to get all these TV channels from Hungary, Romania, and the Baltic states. I got sort of interested in the part of Europe I knew nothing about. So, I started working in an engineering and consulting firm, which had its biggest office in Kyiv.<\/span><\/p>\n

I knew nothing about Ukraine. I\u2019m ashamed to say it now, but like many of us, I thought it was \u201csort of russia, but a little bit different.\u201d I lived there for several years, traveled around the country, and learned about its regions and proud history, and I fell a little bit in love with the country. It was 1999-2001 \u2014 these were difficult times for Ukraine. The murder of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze happened, Leonid Kuchma was a president, so it was not always going in the right direction, but you could see a country developing so much differently from russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

To cut a long story short, when I got back to the Netherlands, I started working for the Dutch government and got involved in climate change, helping to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text]\n

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Lennard de Klerk on the Military Emission Gap Conference 2023, 26 September 2023, Oxford<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n [vc_column_text]What brought you to research the impact of the war on climate change?<\/b><\/p>\n

I live in Hungary and run a climate-neutral resort there. When the full-scale invasion started, we were able to house many Ukrainians who were on their way to Europe so that they could recover from the week in a car. I thought, what can I do besides helping refugees?<\/span><\/p>\n

Since climate change is my expertise, I started thinking about what russian aggression does to the climate. When I started to work on this topic, I told friends and colleagues, and we realized that this was never done before \u2014 to look at the impact of conflict on climate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impact of this war is mostly on Ukraine’s territory. However, it also increases greenhouse gas emissions and accelerates global warming. I believe that by telling this story, we will also be able to show that russian aggression impacts the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

A Reminder about Climate Change<\/h2>\n

Climate change is caused by the emission of so-called greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas, but we have other gases besides CO2: methane, nitrous oxide, halogenated other gases. There are also gases such as sulphur dioxide, ammonia and black carbon aerosols. They all accumulate in the atmosphere. As a result, they trap the heat of the sun. That is why the average temperature in the world is going up.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the UN\u2019s <\/span>Paris Agreement<\/span><\/a>, we agreed to limit this increase in temperature to 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels. We cannot stop climate change anymore, it\u2019s too late. But if we limit it to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, it is more or less manageable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If we get to 2 degrees or more, we will not be able to manage it anymore: catastrophic weather events can occur. We will have people on the move, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We only have 4 years left before the amount of greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere is already enough to raise temperatures by 1.5 degrees.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, we really have to work very hard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically. But russia, with this war, is doing the opposite \u2014 it is causing more emissions. It is basically accelerating the growth of temperature and, therefore, the impact of climate change.\u00a0 <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3764″ img_size=”1440×660 px” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

War in Ukraine and Greenhouse Gases \u2014 What\u2019s in Common?<\/b><\/h2>\n

What are the key environmental consequences of this war?<\/b><\/p>\n

We <\/span>concluded<\/span><\/a> that the total emissions caused by the war were 175 tons of CO2.<\/span><\/p>\n