Surge in global nuclear weapon spending
13 - The percentage increase in global nuclear spending since 2023, according to a new report.
Britain Yearly Meeting’s peace and disarmament team has highlighted a new report showing a thirteen per cent surge in global spending on nuclear weapons.
The report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) shows that global spending on nuclear weapons swelled to US$91.4 billion in 2023. ‘The report shows a $10.7 billion increase in spending on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared to 2022 with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase,’ said ICAN.
All nine of the world’s nuclear armed nations are spending more. In second place from the US’s $51.5 billion, China is judged to be the second largest spender at $11.9 billion, with Russia in third place at $8.3 billion. The UK ($8.1 billion) and France ($6.1 billion) are in fourth and fifth position, although lack of transparency in states such as India, Pakistan and Israel make estimates complicated, say experts.
The money could be used on environmental and social programmes instead, said the authors.
The report, ‘Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending’, was released on 17 June.
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