By Ethan Wong

On February 1st, The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) hosted an event titled “Locking in Progress: Climate Security Priorities for 2024,” focused on US policy, with a central theme of integrating and mainstreaming climate security into strategic decision making across the federal government. The panel event was moderated by CCS Director Erin Sikorsky and featured perspectives from experts with experience in U.S. government climate security policy. Speakers included:

• Dr. Tegan Blaine: Director for Climate, Environment, and Conflict at the U.S. Institute of Peace and former Senior Climate Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Africa
• The Honorable Joe Bryan: Former Department of Defense (DOD) Chief Sustainability Officer & Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense on climate
• Dr. Frances Colón: Senior Director for International Climate policy at the Center for American Progress and former Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State
• Mr. Richard Kidd IV: Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience

The panel discussed the climate security gains that the Administration has made in the last three years, remaining gaps that need to be addressed, and steps to solidify this progress.This included several important themes covered during their remarks:

• Climate change and climate security is central to the work of DOD, the Department of State (DOS), and USAID, impacting their ability to achieve their core missions.
• The administration has taken significant steps to address climate security concerns across the federal government, including through governance frameworks and investments.
• Agencies effectively linked climate change to their core missions and recognized climate security is broader than only impacts on defense or facilities. 
• More work is needed to embed climate security into all aspects of risk analysis and strategic decision making.
• Although there has been progress in facilitating interagency cooperation, especially between the defense, diplomacy, and development sectors, advancing these partnerships and securing organizational change will require time and sustained leadership.
• To ensure meaningful change, climate security needs to be decoupled from domestic politics and evaluated practically.

The event included a questions and answer session from the audience and concluded with final remarks from CCS Director Emeritus John Conger. As noted above, while the conversation covered a range of topics, a core theme—the importance of integrating and mainstreaming climate security into strategic decision making across the federal government—was notable in its recurrence. The panelists emphasized that climate change is not a sector of its own, but is a fundamental shift that presents strategic risks to a range of US activities and is core to the country’s ability to compete globally. Therefore, it is essential that climate considerations be embedded in the US government’s thinking from the very beginning, a shift that takes time and sustained focus.

As we enter the final year of this presidential term, the panelists recognized that 2024 is an important year for the future of climate security progress. Domestic politics can jeopardize the gains made in the last few years, so there is a need to depoliticize climate change and execute existing action to ensure sustained change. However, despite the increasingly polarized political situation, the panel noted that climate security conversations must continue as it broadens opportunities for the US to lead on climate change, including by positively shaping the geopolitics of the issue, more thoroughly tackling the interlinkages between climate and security, and pushing for global climate progress in a strategic and security context. 

A recording of the event can be found above, or on The Council on Strategic Risks YouTube page.