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.
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At a briefing ahead of the COP25, foreign minister Heiko Maas called for higher ambition for the European Union, which should act as a role-model to encourage other states to boost their commitments to climate action. He further reiterated the importance of supporting multilateralism and an international climate regime that is able to withstand setbacks, such as the US withdrawal of the Paris Agreement.
Climate change is increasingly challenging global security and undermining peacebuilding efforts. UN Environment and the European Union have joined forces to address these challenges. With the support of adelphi, they have developed a toolkit on ‘Addressing climate-fragility risks’. This toolkit facilitates the development and implementation of strategies, policies, and projects that seek to build resilience by linking climate change adaptation, peacebuilding, and sustainable livelihoods, focusing on the pilot countries Sudan and Nepal.
Nobody needs to be convinced that climate change affects our very existence and security. However, experts are interested to know how climate change affects security at a global level and what the EU can do in that regard. This was the main aim of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) Climate Change and Security Course co-organised by the French Institute for Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN) and adelphi, as part of the Climate Diplomacy initiative supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, which took place in Brussels from 21 to 23 October 2019.
The new study Shoring up Stability demonstrates, for the first time, how climate change interacts with conflict and exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region. To launch the report and discuss its findings with local policy-makers, experts and practitioners, the German Embassy in Niger, adelphi and CNESS co-organised a launch event on 24 October in Niamey. Insights from Niger point to the importance of investing in governance rather than technical fixes.