America News Agency

The analysis, shared exclusively with the Guardian newspaper, provides a conservative snapshot of the climate cost of the current war in Gaza, in addition to the unprecedented killings, deliberate famine, infrastructure damage and environmental catastrophe.

New research reveals that the carbon cost of rebuilding Gaza would be higher than the annual greenhouse gas emissions produced by 135 countries individually, exacerbating the global climate emergency alongside unprecedented death tolls.

Rebuilding the estimated 200,000 apartment buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, mosques, bakeries, and water and sewage plants damaged and destroyed by Israel in the first four months of the war on Gaza would generate up to 60 million tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e). According to a new analysis by researchers in the UK and the US, this is on par with the total emissions produced by countries such as Portugal and Sweden in 2022 and more than double Afghanistan's annual emissions.

 According to research published in the Social Science Research Network, the planet-warming emissions produced by air and ground attacks during the first 120 days of the war in Gaza were more than the annual carbon footprint of 26 of the world's most climate-sensitive countries, including Vanuatu and Greenland.

More than 99 percent of the 652,552 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2 equivalent/CO2e) estimated to have been produced in the first four months after the Hamas attack on October 7 is linked to Israel's aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza.

Almost 30 percent of the total CO2 emissions were produced by 244 American cargo planes known to have flown bombs, ammunition and other military supplies to Israel in the first 120 days.

According to the calculation, which is almost certainly an underestimate due to incomplete military emissions data, the carbon cost of the first 120 days of Israel's assault on Gaza was equivalent to the total annual energy use of 77,200 American households.

Long-term reconstruction will be the biggest carbon cost of the war in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and thousands more are estimated to be buried under rubble and dead. The Israeli bombardment is estimated to have left around 26 million tons of debris and rubble that could take years to clear.

Hamas rockets fired at Israel between October 2023 and February 2024 generated an estimated 1,140 tCO2e. The other 2,700 tCO2e were attributed to fuel stored by the group before October 7. In total, Hamas' carbon footprint in the first 120 days was equivalent to the annual energy use of 454 American homes.

Ben Neimark, co-author of the study and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), said: “While the world's attention is rightly focused on the humanitarian disaster, the climate consequences of this conflict are also catastrophic. "But our study is only a snapshot, describing the major reported greenhouse gas emissions from the war machine in the first 120 days.

Astrid Puentes, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, said: “One of the serious consequences of the war in Gaza has been the massive violation of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment... which poses a serious risk to life and the enjoyment of all other rights. The region is already experiencing severe climate impacts that could worsen."

The 120-day analysis, based on earlier research reported by the Guardian in January, includes direct CO2 emissions from bombing and reconnaissance flights, tanks, artillery, rockets and other vehicles, as well as emissions from the manufacture and detonation of hundreds of thousands of bombs. 

For the first time, the researchers also calculated emissions from trucks travelling 595.5 km round-trip from Egypt to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to 2.3 million starving Palestinians trapped under bombardment. The study found that the 1,400 or so trucks Israel allowed into Gaza between early October and February produced almost 9,000 tons of CO2e.

After Israel damaged or destroyed solar installations and the only power plant in the territory, 58,000 tons of CO2e emissions came from diesel-powered generators now used to generate electricity in Gaza. Before the conflict, about 25 percent of Gaza's electricity came from solar panels.