- by GK
- The Guardian
- Issue #2208
One thing about the carbon emissions that most people don’t realise is this: they’re massively under-counted. We know this because we know that the carbon emissions of the world’s military forces are not included when carbon output is measured. This means that every nation’s recorded carbon output is more than the official tally.
The carbon emissions of the USA’s military are equivalent to those of a middle-sized country.
Obviously carbon emissions are even higher when the military is waging war. The US-Israel war on Iran has produced an estimated 30 million tons of carbon emissions.
The war has also had the effect of drastically raising oil prices. The 2026 oil shock has caused a 21 per cent increase in Australia’s petrol prices. Although it certainly wasn’t the US plan, this war has accelerated the transition towards renewables and electrification, especially when it comes to transport. Battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles sales recorded their highest market shares at 34,435 and 19,184 respectively. Anyone who has to drive can understand why. Petrol prices are going up fast and it would be great to not have to worry about them.
It would be a sweet irony if a war in which oil is being used as a weapon caused the world to stop using oil. The war is certainly discouraging the use of oil-driven transport, but the market alone won’t do the job for us. The pressure of high oil prices makes the transition more likely, but doesn’t make it happen fast enough.
This is particularly true when it comes to diesel. Trucks, agricultural machinery, mining equipment and other commercial vehicles cannot simply stop operating because diesel becomes more expensive. The people who operate the equipment pass on the prices when they can, and suffer losses when they can’t.
The pressure that Trump’s disastrous military adventure has produced puts pressure on oil-consumers, but it’s not enough. What’s needed is the sort of all-out government effort that was involved in earlier transport changes, like electrification and the introduction of railways. The Albanese Labor government loves to take credit for things like rooftop solar, but could be far more active in making the transition we need (at time of writing, 38 fossil fuel developments have been waved through on Albanese’s watch, so Labor could stop doing that if they cared to).
Electric trucks are feasible now, but would need a colossal investment to take off. A truck driver who has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a rig isn’t going to just sell it and provide the infrastructure needed. As diesel prices head north, they’ll be motivated, but just won’t have the capacity. A massive increase in rail transport and active intervention when it comes to electric road transport would really make a difference and would pay off long term.
Another area where government action could make a difference is public transport. Making public transport cheap or free, high quality, and frequent could make a huge difference to how many people drive.
An exception to the government’s lamentable record of leaving things to the private market is bus transport. State governments around the country are introducing charging depots and electric busses, with the exception of Queensland, where the Crisafuli government is trying to get anti-green brownie points by “investing” in diesel busses in the middle of a diesel price explosion. Here too, Labor could do much much more.
