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9 Ways Fossil Fuels Are Tied to Conflict and How Feminist Peace Action Through the Fossil Fuel Treaty Can Stop It

From a feminist peace perspective, co-authors Mitzi Jonelle Tan and Katrin Geyer explore in this blog how a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty can break through the cycle of fossil-fuel-powered conflict, militarism, and inequality. 

A person holds a globe over their head; sunflowers, wind turbines, a flying jet, and various guns surround them, symbolizing conflict between war, peace, and environmental issues.
Image credit: WILPF
  • 8 min
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and Katrin Geyer, WILPF
15 September 2025

The Fossil fuel industry isn’t just the main driver behind the climate crisis, it is also fuelling violence, militarism, and inequalities. Oil, gas, and coal have been called “weapons of mass destruction” because of their devastating role in both the climate crisis and in conflict. For this year’s Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice, read more to explore how feminist peace action can break the cycle.

For us, this is not abstract. Gloria Capitan, a Filipino grandmother campaigning against coal projects was murdered in front of her grandchildren seven years ago. All she wanted was to stop the pollution in her community that was killing them. This reality has shaped my (Mitzi) activism as an anti-imperialist climate justice activist: fossil fuel projects kill, destroy livelihoods and expose women and Indigenous peoples to heightened risks of violence and exploitation. And as someone working in international advocacy, I (Katrin) witness how today’s fossil-fuel-driven hypermilitarisation undermines multilateral efforts on climate mitigation, adaptation, conflict prevention, and human rights. At every level — from UN agencies to local authorities — I see public resources drained into record-breaking military budgets, instead of being invested in care, justice, and peace.

But there is hope: a growing movement for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, grounded in feminist peace principles, shows us that another future is possible.

Ahead of the upcoming webinar “Fossil fuels as roadblocks to peace– Why the Fossil Fuel Treaty is Key to Peace and Climate Justice,” organised by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Campaign and WILPF during this year’s Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice, we explore nine ways fossil fuels are tied to conflict—and how feminist peace action through the Fossil Fuel Treaty can break the cycle.

1 — Wars for Control of Oil and Gas

War has served to secure and protect fossil fuel extraction sites. The  US war against Iraq and its ensuing occupation led to Anglo-American oil industries like BP and Shell making billions of profits from oil extracted from Iraq.  An estimated one-quarter to one-half of all interstate wars have been linked to oil since the 1973 Oil Crisis. Control over reserves, pipelines, and shipping routes have played a key role in invasions and territorial disputes. Research suggests that one reason for Israel’s ongoing devastating genocide in Gaza is its desire to control oil and gas reserves off the coast of Gaza, Israel and Lebanon. 

2 — Petro-Profits That Finance Wars

Petro-states use oil and gas revenues to fund aggression. Russia’s war in Ukraine has been propped up by over €937 billion in fossil fuel revenues since 2022. In 2023 alone, Global Witness found that Russian crude oil to the European Union has resulted in €1.1 billion in direct tax revenues. According to Global Witness, these profits are enough to buy over 1,200 Kalibr cruise missiles or 60,000 Shahed drones, both of which have been used to bomb cities and kill civilians across Ukraine.

3 — Militaries Depend on Fossil Fuels

Militaries are among the world’s largest oil consumers. It is conservatively estimated that military activity contributes at least 5.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. To put this into perspective,  global emissions of the civilian aviation industry account for roughly 2.5 per cent. Yet, military emissions are exempt from national climate reporting, concealing a significant factor driving the climate crisis.

4 — Skyrocketing global military expenditure accelerates climate breakdown 

An increase of military expenditure positively correlates with emissions. In 2024, global military expenditures reached an unprecedented high of $2,718 billion. The 9.4 per cent increase from 2023 to 2024 was the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988. Allocating scarce resources to the military also takes away public resources to provide climate finance, including funding for a just transition. 

5 — Fossil Fuels Drive Civil Wars and Separatist Movements

Oil-rich regions like Sudan or Nigeria’s Niger Delta are flashpoints for violent separatism. Fossil fuel rents enrich elites while marginalised groups are excluded, driving cycles of rebellion and repression. These conflicts are made worse by the legacies of colonial rule and by global economic systems that continue to put many countries in the Global South at a disadvantage. 

6 — Climate Crisis as a “Threat Multiplier”

As fossil-fuelled climate breakdown worsens droughts, floods, and displacement, many Global North governments and military alliances respond not with care but with militarisation — treating the climate crisis as a security rather than a justice issue. 

7 — Fossil Fuel Extraction Fuels Human Rights Abuses and Gender-Based Violence

From Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado to Colombia’s coal and oil fields, the fossil fuel industry has left a systemic and extensively documented trail of harm of structural violence across the globe. Fossil fuel projects bring forced displacement, militarised policing, silenced land defenders, and violence against women. Extraction zones are hotspots for sexual violence, exploitation, and femicide. 

8 — Conflict Supercharges Emissions

The use of missiles and bombs and the destruction of infrastructure and entire ecosystems, including carbon sinks such as forests, all combine to create immense amounts of emissions. The first two years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine produced more emissions than the annual output of 175 countries. In Gaza, the long-term climate cost of destroying, clearing and rebuilding Gaza could exceed the combined 2023 annual greenhouse emissions by Costa Rica and Estonia.

9 — Corporate Power and Neo-Colonial Exploitation

Fossil fuel profits enrich Global North corporations, while communities in the Global South bear the costs — pollution, displacement, and violence. Six major oil corporations, based in the Global North, account for two-thirds of the global investment in fossil fuel exploration, pocketing soaring profits, while Indigenous communities from the Peruvian Amazon to local communities in the Doba oilfields of southern Chad endure cascading and costly impacts from environmental disasters and human rights violations. 

“The fossil fuel industry fuels the extractivist, patriarchal, and imperialist system. It fuels the extraction and exploitation of people and nature, leading to wasteful overproduction, the biodiversity and the climate crisis – all for the profit of the richest. This system will protect and prioritise this profit at all costs – leading to war and violence, impacting especially the lands and bodies of marginalised genders and communities. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty cuts off the lifeline of these oppressive systems, so it is essential not just for climate justice but for liberation and peace.” — Mitzi Jonelle Tan

Toward a Feminist, Fossil-Free Peace

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is not only a climate tool — it can be a peace tool. We believe that it has the potential to tackle the root drivers of violence by cutting dependence on fossil fuels which can help dismantle militarised and patriarchal systems, and enable a just transition.

Feminist peace activists from Mozambique to Colombia, from Spain to the Philippines, are already showing the way. Our struggles connect climate, gender, and peace — proving that another world is possible.

WILPF Colombia (LIMPAL) continues to amplify the voices and perspectives of women land defenders in Meta, Guaviare, and Bolívar, where fossil fuel extraction has caused violence, displacement, and environmental destruction, and they propose community-led energy sovereignty as a path to peace. In the Philippines, women Indigenous defenders are leading campaigns against extractive mining industries and fossil fuel projects. Feminist activists and researchers in Spain expose how Spanish banks and companies finance fossil fuel expansion abroad, often in conflict zones, and WILPF Spain campaigns for the redirection of public resources away from war and extractivism toward care and community. 

Across continents, feminist peace activism is not only resisting fossil-fueled violence, but also imagining and building alternatives rooted in care, justice, and community. Our struggles open up urgent questions for all of us: How can transitions be truly just? How do we dismantle militarism and extractivism? How can global solidarity strengthen local resistance, and what role can the Fossil Fuel Treaty play in tying all of these struggles together?  

We believe the Fossil Fuel Treaty has the power to disrupt the hypermasculinised patterns that reproduce systems of extraction, exploitation, and colonialism — even within the renewable energy transition. At its core, the movement for this Treaty uplifts the leadership of affected communities, women, Indigenous peoples, and Global South communities on the frontlines of extraction, climate impacts, and structural violence. Already, we are witnessing how this global, intersectional movement is not only resisting harm but actively building the just and peaceful world we all want to see.

Webinar poster with the title “Power, Profits, Patriarchy: Fossil Fuels as Roadblocks to Peace,” featuring art of a globe with sunflowers, fossil fuel pumps, jets, and logos for climate and peace organizations.
A promotional poster for an event titled Power, Profits, Patriarchy: Fossil Fuels as Roadblocks to Peace, featuring profiles of five female speakers and logos for WILPF, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, and Week of Action.
Register now

Join us for our upcoming webinar on 18 September at 4:30PM CEST to explore how feminist peace action through the Fossil Fuel Treaty can stop fossil-fuel driven conflict and insecurity, and help build a just, peaceful,and flourishing world for all. 

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Resources

The  facts above are drawn from WILPF’s recent research, supported by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Campaign. For a deep dive into this topic, explore the below resources:

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Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

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Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.