Ukraine to seek $44 billion from Russia for wartime emissions damage

Ukraine says it will seek almost $44 billion from Russia to cover the climate damage caused by wartime emissions, marking the first attempt by any nation to bill an aggressor for its carbon footprint during conflict.

Speaking on the sidelines of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, Deputy Minister for Economy, Environment and Agriculture Pavlo Kartashov said the war has turned Ukraine’s ecosystems into a “silent victim”, with severe harm to land, forests and water, alongside a surge in greenhouse gases released by fighting and destruction.

Ukraine argues that Russia’s invasion has generated around 237 million tonnes of extra CO₂-equivalent emissions since 2022 — roughly the annual output of Ireland, Belgium and Austria combined — according to Dutch carbon-accounting specialist Lennard de Klerk, who assisted in calculating the figure.

The claim is based on the social cost of carbon, valued at about $185 per tonne in a 2022 Nature study. Ukraine plans to file the demand through a new compensation mechanism being set up by the Council of Europe, which has already logged roughly 70,000 individual claims for war-related losses.

If the claim proceeds, it would be the first case in which a state is held financially liable for emissions produced as a result of an act of aggression.

De Klerk said the eventual source of compensation remains uncertain, though frozen Russian assets held abroad are seen as a potential avenue - a move Russia said would elicit a "painful response".

A member of Russia’s delegation at COP30 declined to comment.

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