The most painful reality of war lies in the fearful eyes of a little girl whose smile has vanished — in her lost life. No one can ever justify the cost of that pain. The second reality of war carries two burdens: the Financial Burden and the Burden on the Planet.
In times of peace, during static defense operations, wartime activities, and post-war production and consumption, solid, liquid, and gaseous pollutants and wastes are continuously generated. Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions lead to climate change. Weapons, rockets, land, air, and sea vehicles, fuels, and ammunition — every deployment, visible or invisible, direct or indirect — damage water and land ecosystems, imposing a high cost on the planet. In the defense industry and its supply chains, both those who profit and those who spend heavily coexist.
Hidden subjects of war include the Energy War, the Water War, and the Rare Earth Elements War. There are also wars over currencies, gold, and silver. Within these triads, hydrocarbons — petroleum and natural gas — hold a critical position as both energy sources and raw materials for the chemical industry. This critical role creates hardship for citizens’ purchasing power and disrupts the supply-demand balance in industry, driving up costs. The most painful outcome of the U.S.–Israel–Iran War, from a broader perspective, is the food crisis and the looming threat of famine. Fertilizer, the foundation of agriculture, requires hydrogen from hydrocarbons and nitrogen from the air. The supply chain of countless food products — plant-based, animal-based, and mostly wrapped in plastic — collapses during war. All of it goes beyond pain.
Lubricant means base oil. Base oils and additive packages are hydrocarbons. Lubricant packaging made of plastic is also hydrocarbon. Rising crude oil and natural gas prices, coupled with supply chain disruptions, will increase production costs and sales prices of lubricants and their packaging. The dynamics of the lubricant and plastic economy will shift. The raw material crisis has arrived.
Lubricants, indispensable in every field of industry, perform their function during war but later, through leakage, combustion, or disposal, contaminate soil and water, harming human and environmental health. Lubricants, ammunition, and all inputs of war accelerate our three global crises: Biodiversity Loss, Environmental Pollution, and Climate Change. The cost and pain borne by the planet — shared by humans, plants, animals, and microorganisms — are immense. The financial and planetary cost of rebuilding cities after war is also colossal. Finished and ongoing wars are disasters created by humankind. How can we comprehend their impact on girls’ futures, spring blossoms, sprouting crops, and millennia of cultural richness? How can we explain it?
The U.S.–Israel–Iran War and the partial or complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas transport have forced countries with full storage capacities to cut or halt production. Millions of barrels of oil have been lost. The release of strategic reserves has had, and will continue to have, serious consequences. If only this loss could have been embedded in petrochemicals and base oils, creating value in products instead of burning carbon for war, polluting the air, and altering the climate. Burying carbon this way would be industrially valuable — not for burying people or nature.
The interaction of nuclear technology and radiation with the U.S.–Israel–Iran War is another painful reality — too vast for these lines and too serious for the word “problem” to suffice.
The impact of war on climate change in our country was first reported as a Green Line story by AA journalist Yeşim Yüksel in July 2024, while the Gaza War was ongoing, in an interview with me. The figures in the report were alarming. For the curious: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/yesilhat/iklim-degisikligi/gazzenin-yeniden-insasinin-karbon-maliyeti-135ten-fazla-ulkenin-yillik-emisyonunu-gecebilir/1823548
We define the high greenhouse gas emissions and climate impact of war as “The Carbon Cost of War.” This hidden cost, the burden on the planet, remains with us as long as wars continue. If only we fought climate change instead of each other. If only we committed neither war crimes nor climate crimes. Who will pay for these crimes? We must stay vigilant and act collectively — almost as if mobilized.
As the Sustainable Production and Consumption Association (SÜT-D), we prioritize combating climate change and strengthening Türkiye’s carbon management capacity. Before the UN’s global launch of Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action on September 27, 2015, we founded SÜT-D in September 2013 and held our first event — the Istanbul Carbon Summit — in April 2014 at Istanbul Technical University’s certified green campus, under the theme “Carbon Management, Technologies, and Trade.”
At the time, these words were scarcely heard. Our summit, focused solely on its subject and not a general environmental event, remains unique in its business-oriented approach. This year, amid ongoing regulatory developments and ahead of COP31, our summit holds special significance. With the main support of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change, and under ITU’s “Carbon Neutral 2048” vision, we will host the 11th Istanbul Carbon Summit on May 4–5, 2026, themed “Decarbonization, Carbon Markets, and Climate Technologies.” Join us — with the city’s best coffee, the taste of chocolate, and the energy of fragrant molecules enriching our exhibition.
