With Russia’s war against Ukraine ongoing, emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) have continued to grow. The sixth assessment presented below covers four years since the full-scale invasion and concludes that GHG emissions went up by 75 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) bringing the total since 24 February 2022 to 311 million tCO2e. This large figure is comparable to the annual emissions of France or half of Germany’s yearly emissions.
While emissions rose across all impact categories during the fourth year, war-driven landscape fires surged for the second consecutive year. Unusually hot and dry conditions — likely intensified by global warming — turned even minor sparks from combat into uncontrollable blazes, as firefighting remained impossible. Emissions from reconstruction efforts also spiked, particularly in the energy sector, as Russia escalated attacks on Ukraine’s electricity and heating infrastructure during the harsh winter of 2025–2026.
With the Social Cost of Carbon of 185 USD / tCO2e applied, the climate damage caused by this war amounts to over 57 billion USD and continues to grow.
Download publication: Climate damage caused by russia’s war in Ukraine: 24 February 2022 – 23 February 2026 (PDF)
Previous iterations of the climate damage report you can find here:
Climate damage report: 3 years since full-scale invasion. Full assessment
Climate damage report: 3 years since full-scale invasion. Preliminary assessment
Climate damage report: 2 years since the full-scale invasion
Climate damage report: 1,5 years since the full-scale invasion
Climate damage report: 1 year since the full-scale invasion
Climate damage report: 7 months since the full-scale invasion
Guidance on the assessment of conflict-related GHG emissions you can find here:
Methodological guidance to estimate conflict-related GHG emissions
Contacts:
IGGAW lead author Lennard de Klerk (DE, EN, HU, NL), +39 379 3372689
This assessment was made possible with financial support from the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) through the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC). The content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views or official position of ECF and SSNC or its donors.