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Ukraine Demands $43B From Russia for War-Driven Climate Damage
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Ukraine is preparing what officials describe as the first claim in history seeking about $43 billion in “climate reparations” from Russia for wartime greenhouse gas emissions, according to Deutsche Welle on November 19.
Ukrainian officials outlined the move on the sidelines of the UN climate conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil, stating that the demand will be submitted through a new Council of Europe compensation mechanism that is already registering tens of thousands of war-related claims from Ukrainian individuals and entities.
The case targets emissions linked directly to the full-scale invasion, including fossil fuel use by military equipment, reconstruction activities that rely heavily on cement and steel, and large-scale forest and landscape fires, which together have produced nearly 237 million tons of additional CO₂-equivalent emissions since February 2022, according to calculations by the environmental group Ecoaction.
Reuters reported that Dutch carbon-accounting expert Lennard de Klerk, who advised the Ukrainian side, used a “social cost of carbon” of approximately $185 per ton to calculate a climate damage figure exceeding $43 billion.
De Klerk stated that the climate reparations claim against Russia will be filed through a mechanism now being established by the Council of Europe, which has already received approximately 70,000 war-related compensation claims from Ukrainians.
Earlier, it was reported that Ukrainian officials, drawing on an international investigation, estimated that Russia’s full-scale invasion has caused over $85 billion in environmental losses, from polluted water and scorched forests to contaminated soil and crippled farmland, with long-term risks for biodiversity and public health.
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