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Greening Military? On the Transformation of the Military Metabolism in Context of Climate Change and Increasing Geopolitical Tensions
The fact that climate change and the associated environmental changes create a security risk has been discussed in research and also in the military for quite some time. At the same time, the question of the extent to which the military, armament and a changed geopolitical situation are putting climate mitigation efforts at risk has so far received little attention. The military sector is one of the world's largest CO2 emitters and thus contributes significantly to the climate crisis. With the increasing scale of military activity, in the short, medium and long-term negative impacts on the ecosphere are also intensifying. Germany has obligated itself to become climate-neutral by 2045. At the same time, the defense budget was significantly increased following the Russian attack on Ukraine. "Greening Military?" takes a look at these conflicting objectives.
Until now, there have been scarcely any links between military studies and socio-ecological (transformation) research. In the project, representatives from the fields of environmental sociology, historical research, theology & ethics, life cycle assessment and museum studies are working together in an inter- and transdisciplinary research network. The relationship between the modern military and its natural environment will be examined from various perspectives and analyzed in terms of its transformation in the light of "Zeitenwende" (Olaf Scholz) and the climate crisis.
The first phase of the project involves systematizing and studying empirically the military metabolism to date. Based on these results, the second phase of the project will identify and analyze greening strategies of the military. Finally, in the third part of the project, a traveling exhibition on the military-nature nexus will be designed. Methodologically, the project uses expert interviews, instruments from the field of eco-balancing and transdisciplinary scenario techniques.
Project funding by the Volkswagen Foundation.
08.12.2025 Panel discussion From permit to potential: law and the environmental harm caused by the military pre-, post- and during conflict with Kerrin Langer. European University Institute, Department of Law, Florence.
04.12.2025 Panel discussion War and Sustainability with Bernd Sommer. RIFS Conference 2025 Tough Conversations in Tough Times, Berlin.
24.09.2025 Lecture Zwischen Greening und „De-Wokefication“? Der militärisch-industrielle Komplex im Konfliktfeld der sozial-ökologischen Transformation by Bernd Sommer and Kerrin Langer. 42. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Ad-Hoc-Gruppe Nachhaltigkeitstransitionen im Gegenwartskapitalismus, University of Duisburg-Essen.
17.09.2025 Lecture Seemacht und Energie. Der Metabolismus der Marine im Wandel der Zeit by Kerrin Langer. 55. Deutscher Historikertag, University of Bonn.
29.08.2025 Lecture Military Metabolism(s) – A Conceptual Framework by Kerrin Langer. 18. EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations, University of Bologna.
20.08.2025 Lecture On Transformations of the Military Amid Rearmament and Climate Crisis by Frank Reichherzer. 13. European Society for Environmental History Conference, Uppsala.
20.03.2025 Lecture Umwelt, Klima und der Metabolismus von Seestreitkräften by Kerrin Langer. „Dreizack“ - Maritime wissenschaftliche Netzwerk und Nachwuchstagung, Deutsche Maritime Akademie/Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University.
13.03.2025 Lecture (Not) All is Fair in Love and War: Military Violence, Nature, and the concept of Ecocide in the Context of Norbert Elias' Theory of the Civilizing Process by Kerrin Langer and Frank Reichherzer. Conference A Climate of (De-)Civilization? Shifting Dynamics between Nature and Society, TU Dortmund Universitity.
07.02.2025 Lecture Iron Trinity by Kerrin Langer and Frank Reichherzer. Rachel Carson Center Research Forum, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
16.01.2025 Lecture „Umweltschutz und Militär schließen sich nicht aus!“ Der Militärische Metabolismus und andere Gedanken über die Beziehung von Militär und Umwelt by Frank Reichherzer. Oberseminar Wissenschaftsgeschichte of the Chair of History of Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
11.11.2024 Lecture Von der "Great White Fleet" zur "Great Green Fleet" – Militär-Umwelt-Beziehungen im Wandel der Zeit by Kerrin Langer. Forschungskolloquium Sozialgeschichte und soziale Bewegungen of the Institute for Social Movements in cooperation with the Chair of Technology and Environmental History, Ruhr University Bochum.
25.10.2024 Lecture Konturen und Ausmaß des militärischen Metabolismus: Armeen und Kriege als Treiber von Umweltveränderungen by Bernd Sommer und Frank Reichherzer. Jahrestagung der Sektion Umwelt- und Nachhaltigkeitssoziologie: Trends und Themen der Umwelt- und Nachhaltigkeitssoziologie, University of Augsburg.
02.10.2024 Roundtable Militärischer Metabolismus – Was haben sich Militär-, Energie- und Umweltgeschichte zu sagen?. Kerrin Langer discusses with Frank Reichherzer, Rüdiger Graf and Astrid Mignon Kirchhof. Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr, Potsdam.
Langer, Kerrin/Reichherzer, Frank (2025): (Not) all is fair in love and war: Norbert Elias’s theory of civilisation, military violence, and the protection of the environment in war. In: Culture, Practice & Europeanization 2/10, pp. 222-244. Available online.
Langer, Kerrin (2024): Klimawandel - der blinde Fleck im Kurs Marine. In: Leinen los! 11/2025, pp. 20-21.
17.03.2026 – 19.03.2026
Location: LMU Main Building, A120, Kleine Aula, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich
Conveners: Kerrin Langer and Bernd Sommer (TU Dortmund), Christof Mauch (RCC), Zsuzsanna Ihar (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), Frank Reichherzer (Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences)
According to recent estimates, more than 5.5 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are linked to military organizations and armed conflict. These outputs—equivalent to roughly twice the annual greenhouse gas emissions of a country such as Germany—are systematically obscured and largely omitted from international monitoring frameworks, including the emissions inventories under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Today, Israel’s war on Gaza and the war in Ukraine exemplify the devastating human and environmental costs of conflict. Indeed, 120 million tons of carbon dioxide have been attributed to the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Even in peacetime, the military and the environment remain deeply entangled, with both war preparation and the maintenance of military force requiring vast amounts of energy, the extraction of raw materials, and enclosure of land.
This conference seeks to critically examine the entanglements between the military and the environment. As a point of entry, we invoke the idea of “military metabolism,” highlighting the flows of material, materiel, and energy within militarized zones, whilst also foregrounding the affective, epistemic, political, and cultural dimensions of “war matter.” We aim to craft ways to more accurately measure the ecological bootprint of the armed forces and to develop frameworks of analysis attentive to the impact of the military on the human and more-than-human. We will consider the complex and enduring connections between militarized landscapes and extractivism, examining the emergence of dual economies, knowledges, and materials tying the two spheres together—in complicity and profit. Finally, we will explore the temporal dimensions of military life and military activity, and the way the multiple temporalities of nature trouble and complicate both historical and contemporary warfare.
The program can be found here.
The call for papers can be found here.
11/2025: Grüner Krieg? Das Militär vereinnahmt den Klimaschutz by Judith Koch in Surplus. Das Wirtschaftsmagazin.
02/2025: Militär und Klima: Zwischen Naturschutz und Umweltzerstörung, „Zugehört“-Podcast, Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr
08/2024: „Wir haben den Fokus auf Pioniervorhaben sehr ernst genommen“, TU Dortmund
04/2024: Zum Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Verteidigung und Klimaschutz, TU Dortmund
Project Team
| Prof. Dr. Bernd Sommer | TU Dortmund |
| Dr. Frank Reichherzer | Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr |
| Prof. Dr. Christof Mauch | Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU |
| Dr. Kerrin Langer | TU Dortmund |
| Tom Ebener | TU Dortmund |
Project Duration
01.06.2024 - 31.05.2027 (36 months)
Project Funding
Volkswagen Foundation
Project Funding & Partners
