Building Climate-Secure Communities: The USAID Climate Strategy and FY 2023 Budget Request
By Elsa Barron
On Earth Day 2022, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released a new Climate Strategy for application between 2022 and 2030. The whole-of-agency approach created by this strategy is one that USAID calls “unprecedented” and necessary to realize a “vision of a resilient, prosperous, and equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.”
USAID can apply its strengths–which it defines as its global presence, longevity of work, breadth of expertise, and convening power–to build climate resilience and prevent climate-induced insecurity. USAID’s investments in achieving its Climate Strategy are not a tradeoff with its existing development work. Rather, the strategy provides opportunities to deepen existing agency programs and equip its community partners to face some of the largest challenges to development, peace, and security in the decades ahead.
(more…)Lyston Lea Joins the Center for Climate and Security Advisory Board
The Center for Climate and Security is pleased and honored to announce that Lyston Lea has joined its distinguished Advisory Board of military and national security leaders. This group supports CCS leadership by providing substantive and strategic guidance.
Mr. Lea recently retired from Defense Intelligence Senior Level Federal service in March 2022, after over 38 years of professional experience working in the Intelligence Community (IC). Before retiring he served as the Principal Advisor to the Director of the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO). During his career, Mr. Lea served in the Analytic Integrity and Standards Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Defense Intelligence Agency, as a Senior Briefer for the J2’s daily Intelligence Briefing to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Deputy Office Chief of the Defense Warning Office. Mr. Lea holds a Master of Science in National Security Studies from the National War College, a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Fordham University, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Washington & Jefferson College.
Read Mr. Lea’s full bio here.
Read, Watch, Listen: CCS Across the Web | May 2022
Welcome to “Read, Watch, Listen” from the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), a monthly round-up highlighting some of the articles, interviews, and podcasts featuring the CCS network of experts.
In May, CCS experts contributed to two new reports on climate security futures and wrote on climate-related migration, the new French Arctic Strategy, and climate-related risks emanating from the Ukraine crisis.
(more…)Event: U.S. Climate Security Investments: Changing Plans into Actions
Join the Center for Climate and Security (CCS) on June 14, 2022 at 2 p.m. EST for a panel discussion featuring senior U.S. government officials to discuss the climate funding included in the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Budget Request (register here).
Participants include:
- Joe Bryan, Senior Advisor for Climate, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense
- Teresa Pohlman, Executive Director of Environmental and Sustainability Programs, Department of Homeland Security
- Gillian Caldwell, Chief Climate Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development
- Jesse Young, Senior Advisor, Office of the Senior Presidential Envoy for Climate, U.S. State Department
Earlier this year, the Climate and Security Advisory Group published the report, Challenge Accepted, which lauded the fact that the Administration had declared climate change to be an essential element of national security and foreign policy, but called upon the U.S. government to move from words to deeds.
A key ingredient in accomplishing the aims of established U.S. climate security strategy is the financial resources necessary to fuel the transformation from plans to action. The President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request, submitted to Congress in March, proposes an unprecedented amount of funding dedicated to addressing climate security issues. Which provokes questions like: Is it enough? Is it in the right places? And what forward progress will it actually enable?
Register to attend here.
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