No Mention of Climate Change in the U.S. National Drought Resilience Partnership
Tracking drought — A hydrologic technician from the USGS Idaho Water Science Center measures streamflow in Lightning Creek at Clark Fork, Idaho, during the 2015 drought.
By Marc Kodack
The National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP) recently released a report on its priority actions on long-term drought resilience. The NDRP was created in 2016 and consists of multiple federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Energy, Homeland Security, and Commerce. These departments, other federal agencies, and offices “work together to leverage technical and financial federal resources, strengthen communication, and foster collaboration among its members to productively support state, tribal, and local efforts to build, protect, and sustain drought resilience capacity at regional and basin scales.” However, the climate change and drought nexus is not emphasized within NDRP’s mission, and how climate change affects drought resilience is not addressed at all in the report. That’s a striking omission, given the clear connections, and the importance of accounting for climate change when strengthening drought resilience. (more…)
Robert Taylor Joins the Center for Climate and Security Advisory Board
The Center for Climate and Security is pleased and honored to announce that Robert S. Taylor has joined its distinguished Advisory Board of military and national security leaders. Bob is currently the General Counsel of MCE Social Capital, an entity dedicated to providing financing and support to microfinance and other organizations in roughly 40 countries throughout the developing world. In this position, Bob is addressing the challenge of lifting people and regions out of poverty in a sustainable fashion. In addition, Bob is a veteran of the Department of Defense (DoD), where he served as Principal Deputy General Counsel (PDGC) of DoD from 2009 to 2017. He spent nearly two of those years as Acting General Counsel. He also served as the first Deputy General Counsel (Environment and Installations) in DoD, from 1995 to 2002. (more…)
Climate and Security Fellowship Program Risk Briefers 2019
The Climate and Security Advisory Group (CSAG) is pleased to announce the release of the 2019 Climate and Security Fellowship Program Risks Briefers. This report compiles a series of forward-thinking analysis from the inaugural class of Climate and Security Advisory Group (CSAG) Fellows. The CSAG Fellows spent a year meeting with top climate and security experts, and considering the security implications of climate change in the context of their work, both inside and outside government, their studies, and the pressing security issues facing the world today. (more…)
Release: 64 U.S. Military, National Security and Intelligence Leaders Release “A Climate Security Plan for America”
Washington, D.C., September 24, 2019 — On Capitol Hill today, the Climate and Security Advisory Group (CSAG), an extraordinary group of 64 senior military, national security and intelligence leaders chaired by the Center for Climate and Security in partnership with the Elliott School of International Affairs, is releasing “A Climate Security Plan for America.” The Plan calls on the U.S. President to recognize climate change as a vital national security threat, and issue a National Strategy to fulfill a “responsibility to prepare for and prevent” that threat.
The non-partisan group, which includes eight retired 4-star generals and admirals, thirty senior military officers, a former NASA Administrator, and a past Chair of the National Intelligence Council, among many others, offers the Climate Security Plan for America as an ambitious roadmap for fulfilling this “responsibility to prepare and prevent.” That includes preparing for locked-in threats to security from climate change, and preventing major security disruptions in the future by significantly reducing the scale of the problem. The Plan recommends 4 pillars of action: Demonstrate Leadership; Assess Climate Risks; Support Allies and Partners; Prepare for & Prevent Climate Impacts. (more…)
Today: Climate and National Security Forum 2019
The Center for Climate and Security, in partnership with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, is holding its 2019 Climate and National Security Forum: A Climate Security Plan for America today, September 24, from 9:30am – 12:30pm ET. This year’s forum will focus on the risks that climate change presents to U.S. military bases and operations, and on the launch of the Climate and Security Advisory Group’s Climate Security Plan for America, which calls on the U.S. President to recognize climate change as a vital national security threat, and issue a National Strategy to fulfill a “responsibility to prepare for and prevent” that threat.
Key Materials:
- A Climate Security Plan for America: A Presidential Plan for Combating the Security Risks of Climate Change
- Climate and Security Fellowship Program: Risks Briefers
- Release event details
- Video of the event below:
Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier for Instability: Bloomberg
Sherri Goodman on Bloomberg TV, September 20, 2019
On Friday September 20, Bloomberg TV interviewed the Center for Climate and Security’s Senior Strategist, Sherri Goodman, to discuss the role of climate change as a “threat multiplier” for instability – an apt term coined by the CNA’s Military Advisory Board back in 2007 under Sherri Goodman’s leadership. During the interview, Sherri was asked what her number one recommendation would be if she were still in her prior role as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security, and channeling the Center for Climate and Security’s Responsibility to Prepare framework, she stated:
My number one recommendation would be to incorporate this [climate change] into every aspect of defense planning, policy and programming, so that we are clear-eyed about what risks we face – the unprecedented risks – but also the unprecedented opportunities to seize the technology advantages, to move to lower carbon energy futures, and at the same time to take advantage of predictive analytics that will help us better understand these risks where they are occurring, and to be able to address them on a closer real-time basis.
The full interview is worth a listen (below and here).
NPR on Climate and Security Scenarios with Francesco Femia
An aerial view of Offutt Air Force Base affected by major flood damage, March 17, 2019 (U.S. Air Force photo by TSgt. Rachelle Blake)
In yesterday’s episode of NPR’s On Point, Meghna Chakrabarti interviewed journalist Emily Atkin and Francesco Femia, the Council on Strategic Risks’ CEO and Co-Founder of the Center for Climate and Security, to discuss the implications of climate change for global instability and conflict. The show built upon an article in the New Republic by Emily Atkin, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, exploring a catastrophic 2100 climate scenario. Francesco touched on a number of topics, including climate risks to military installations, the growing bipartisan U.S. national security consensus on climate change and security (including across the intelligence and defense community), as well as the strategic benefits of U.S. investments in climate prevention and preparation (and conversely, the strategic negatives, vis-a-vis its competitors and adversaries, of doing nothing). Listen to the On Point episode here. The segment with Francesco Femia starts at 25:05, but the full show is worth a listen.
Featured Report
Featured Project
