Secretary of Defense Carter: the “growing strategic impact of climate change”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter made a recent statement at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, calling for a “principled security network” for the Asia-Pacific region – one that could collectively address the region’s myriad security challenges – including “the growing strategic impact of climate change.” Rather than ranking threats against each other, which tends to miss the integrated nature of the security landscape, Secretary Carter places climate change within the broader context of a range of pressing security threats and opportunities facing the region, that will be best addressed through a cooperative approach:

Through a principled security network, we can all meet the challenges we’re facing together – whether it’s Russia’s worrying actions, North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations, the threat posed by extremists groups, or the growing strategic impact of climate change.  These challenges and others are real for all of us who live in the Asia-Pacific.  But so are the opportunities: for nations, for militaries, and for the people of the Asia-Pacific.

Secretary Carter’s statement is consistent with the Center for Climate and Security’s perspective on the strategic risks of a changing climate in the region, as well as the strategic opportunities inherent in the U.S. addressing these risks with its allies, partners and prospective partners.

In a recent article published in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist, CCS’s Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia call for a U.S. “Climate Security Plan.” In terms of defense, they state:

…the US military can help maintain stability in climate-vulnerable nations in the Asia–Pacific region, through both military–military and civilian–military engagement on climate preparedness.

In a CCS report published in November of last year titled “The U.S. Asia-Pacific Rebalance, National Security and Climate Change,” Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III (ret), former U.S. Pacific Commander, noted:

As we seek to rebalance and reinvigorate our historic alliances, build new strategic

and economic partnerships, and effectively posture our military in the Asia-Pacific for the 21st century, we must address the potentially catastrophic security implications of climate change in the Asia-Pacific and their likely impact on U.S. interest in the region.