Senior military officials from around the world have publicly warned of the security risks posed by extreme weather events, which are becoming increasingly aggravated by climate change.
Following flooding across the UK this month, Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, former Royal Navy aircraft carrier commander and chief UK climate envoy in 2013, stated that the UK government can no longer afford to disregard the importance of acting on climate change.
In the wake of UK’s disrupted power, train lines and homes from flooding, Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti told website RTCC that climate change goes beyond borders, and that countries cannot “pull up the drawbridge” to stop its impacts.
His stark warning was also repeated this week by Germany’s army, the Bundeswehr. Hartmund Behrend, the German Army’s climate risk expert, stated that climate change should be handled as a foreign policy issue, and that it is now a priority for the Bundeswehr. He told RTCC: “Key environmental and resource constraints, including health risks, climate change, water security and increasing energy needs will further shape the future security environment in areas of concern to NATO and have the potential to significantly affect NATO planning and operations.”
Global security threat
The opinion is echoed by Australian military too, where last week the country’s Chief of Army Lieutenant-General David Morrison stated climate change and related disaster management must be worked into all future military plans. During an address in Sydney, he said: “You have to look at the region with a number of low-lying islands to I think be confident in drawing conclusions that there will be a role for the military as a result. I think that the most likely role for the military however will be in providing immediate assistance for humanitarian and disaster relief.”
Lieutenant-General Morrison’s comments came just days after the US Secretary of State John Kerry called climate change a "weapon of mass destruction" during a speech he gave in Indonesia, foreshadowing the global military chorus for action to curb climate change and its costly impacts.
For the complete article, please see The Climate Group.
The European Green Deal has made the environment and climate change the focus of EU action. Indeed, climate change impacts are already increasing the pressure on states and societies; however, it is not yet clear how the EU can engage on climate security and environmental peacemaking. In this light, and in the run-up to the German EU Council Presidency, adelphi and its partners are organising a roundtable series on “Climate, environment, peace: Priorities for EU external action in the decade ahead”.
In January 2020, the German Federal Foreign Office launched Green Central Asia, a regional initiative on climate and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The aim of the initiative is to support a dialogue in the region on climate change and associated risks in order to foster regional integration between the six countries involved.
Climate change will shift key coordinates of foreign policy in the coming years and decades. Even now, climate policy is more than just environment policy; it has long since arrived at the centre of foreign policy. The German Foreign Office recently released a report on climate diplomacy recognizing the biggest challenges to security posed by climate change and highlighting fields of action for strengthening international climate diplomacy.
A high-level ministerial conference in Berlin is looking at the impact of climate change on regional security in Central Asia. The aim is to foster stronger regional cooperation, improve the exchange of information and form connections with academia and civil society.