Governments urged to use ‘peace dividend’ to help UN tackle pandemics, climate crisis and extreme poverty
Summary
- More than 50 Nobel laureates have signed an open letter calling for all countries to cut their military spending by 2% a year for the next five years, and put half the saved money in a UN fund to combat pandemics, the climate crisis, and extreme poverty.
- “Individual governments are under pressure to increase military spending because others do so,” the signatories say in support of the newly launched Peace Dividend campaign.
- Total military spending amounted to $1,981bn (£1,496bn) last year, an increase of 2.6% according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
- The five biggest spenders were the US ($778bn), China ($252bn), India ($72.9bn), Russia ($61.7bn) and the UK ($59.2bn) – all of whom increased their budgets in 2020.
- Such a fund, they claim, could amount to $1tn by 2030.