The amount spent on nuclear weapons continues to rise despite the declining number of nuclear weapons in the world.
ICAN ‘Enough is enough’ report 2019 shows that the nine nuclear armed countries spent $72.9 billion on their 13,000+ nuclear weapons programmes in 2019, a $7.1 billion increase from 2018.
To put this into perspective, $72.9 billion is the equivalent of $138,699 spent per minute by nine countries.
The UK spent £7.2 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019, that’s £13,600 every minute of 2019. £7.2 billion is 19 per cent of 2019 UK defence spending, estimated at £38.093 billion.
Global military spending – “If only 10 per cent of today’s global military spending were spent on climate action, the current costs of adapting to climate change in developing countries would be covered several times over.” Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, April 9, 2020