🧃 Guns, Grenades and Green Goals

Welcome to The Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that’s seen your Excel defence budget spreadsheet… and added a green column you forgot. Climate doesn’t take a day off just because the tanks are rolling. And according to the UN, Europe’s getting distracted — again.

The battlefield no one’s guarding

While Europe scrambles to beef up its military in response to Trump’s NATO tantrums, the UN’s climate chief Simon Stiell is waving a massive red flag: the climate crisis is a security crisis. Floods, famine and fire are doing more destabilising than any tank battalion. And with Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement (again), someone’s got to step up.

Stiell’s not just talking about melting glaciers and stranded polar bears — he’s warning of entire regions becoming unlivable, triggering massive migration to Europe’s borders. Picture climate change not as a slow-burn documentary, but as a thriller with mass displacement, collapsing economies, and a plot twist called “permanent recession.”

Austerity in camo

Re-armament isn't cheap. Countries are slashing aid, digging into debt, and reconfiguring budgets like it’s fiscal Tetris — and guess which line item is the first to vanish when you're panic-buying jets? Climate action. Despite evidence that decarbonisation drives economic growth (hello, Mario Draghi’s entire report), some governments are backing away from big green announcements, especially with elections looming.

Germany, to its credit, seems to be threading the needle — baking climate spending into its defence budget. It’s not just smart; it’s efficient. Why build a wall when you can stop the flood at the source?

Climate: Europe’s real economic guarantee

Stiell’s main argument? Investing in climate isn’t a luxury. It’s economic insurance. The EU is due to submit its new climate plan this year, which could make or break how the world views its leadership post-Trump. Done right, it could become what he calls a “wealth magnet” — pulling in capital, securing energy independence, and keeping Europe out of both literal and financial hot water.

And let’s not forget — last year was the hottest on record. Climate change isn’t a slow apocalypse. It’s already on your doorstep, eyeing your GDP and turning your weather forecast into a threat assessment.

Takeaway: Europe’s rearmament can’t come at the cost of resilience. If you’re building security for the next decade, maybe don’t ignore the thing that’s already burning your house down.