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Preparing for Disaster: Climate-Related Provisions in the FY26 NDAA
By John Conger
On December 19, President Trump signed the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was passed with bipartisan support by Congress.
While the tone of both the Pentagon and Congress has shifted in recent years, and explicit discussion of climate change as a national security issue has been deprioritized, the operational impacts of climate-driven hazards are clearly reflected in this year’s legislation. Where past NDAAs emphasized long-term resilience, Arctic strategy, or climate risk assessments, the FY26 NDAA focuses more narrowly and pragmatically on preparing the force for wildfires and natural disasters that are already affecting military operations, installations, and personnel.
This shift mirrors operational reality. US forces—particularly the National Guard—are increasingly deployed domestically in response to extreme weather events. The Center for Climate and Security tracks these trends through its Military Responses to Climate Hazards (MiRCH) Tracker, which documents the growing tempo and scope of military disaster response missions.
Food Trade Chokepoints & US National Security in 2040
By Sarah Danon, Saro Naomi Gakusi, Ivette Povis Landa, Jane Pan, and Claire Reichle
Edited by Caroline Baxter, Lily Boland, and Francesco Femia
Executive Summary
This study examines how the intersection of climate, geopolitical, and security threats can intensify vulnerabilities surrounding critical chokepoints in the global food trade system, and posits that these converging risks not only threaten global food security but also drive systemic threats to US national security. A strategic foresight approach is used to examine plausible future scenarios for global food trade and explore potential chokepoint disruptions and their cascading risks. The analysis concludes that maintaining secure maritime food trade is vital to US national security and provides recommendations to mitigate trade disruption and promote food security.
Exploring the Collision of Extreme Weather, Information Manipulation, and Security Threats in Florida
By Tom Ellison, Erin Sikorsky, and Noah Fritzhand
Information manipulation is increasingly recognized as a contributor to climate risks. 2025 saw landmark academic assessments on the topic, as well as the first action on climate information integrity at a UN climate summit. Meanwhile, bad actors take advantage of opportunities to propagandize, sow confusion, and undermine trust as the impacts of climate change intensify and the stakes of policy action grow. These mutually reinforcing challenges jeopardize security and democracy, especially amid volatile geopolitics, rapid change in the technology and media landscape, and US federal reversals on climate policy and information integrity.
This raises questions for a range of US actors amid intensifying extreme weather. How can state and local officials build resilience and respond to emergencies when facing an unsupportive federal government and global, minimally regulated information threats? What are the implications for US military disaster relief and readiness when information manipulation threatens political cohesion and civilian communities? How can journalism or tech policy serve climate security by mitigating mis/disinformation? And how can academia, civil society, and community groups better collaborate to exchange information and expertise?
The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) recently completed a foresight exercise in Florida to explore these questions. Co-hosted by the University of Miami’s Climate Resilience Institute, the event brought together a diverse mix of expertise, including local resilience and emergency management, national security and foreign policy, communications and information integrity, social and natural sciences, and local climate education and activism. Participants heard from senior homeland security and defense speakers, then engaged in a facilitated scenario exercise exploring a plausible extreme weather, information, and national security crisis in Florida. The discussion highlighted several key themes.
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State Level Climate Security Briefers: Colorado, Hawaii, and Washington
CCS has released the latest in a series of subnational climate security briefers focused on the US states Colorado, Hawaii, and Washington. Each state faces a range of risks to lives, critical infrastructure, military bases, and local economies from intensifying extreme weather and climate hazards. Federal agencies, particularly the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provide critical support to these states to help manage these risks. That support has, in some cases, already been cut by the Administration or is facing further proposed cuts.
Read the Briefers here:
State Level Climate Security Education: Colorado
By Madeline Craig-Scheckman and Haidi Al-Shabrawey
State Level Climate Security Education: Hawai’i
By Jessica Kēhaulani Wong
State Level Climate Security Education: Washington
By Natalie Fiertz
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