When U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released the Pentagon’s new Climate Risk Analysis, he acknowledged “climate change touches most of what this department does,” adding “this threat will continue to have worsening implications for U.S. national security.”
The Defense Department now recognizes climate change is a threat multiplier and must be incorporated into all aspects of defense strategy, planning and force posture. The Defense Climate Risk Assessment, or DCRA, directs DoD to incorporate climate risks into all key DoD documents and planning processes, from strategy and planning and force management, to budget and partner activities.
The enormity of this task should not be underestimated; these are the very wheels that make DoD move. While climate considerations have been included in the National Defense Strategy since at least 2008, they have not been fully incorporated into the force planning and budget processes. As is often said in the Pentagon, “strategy without budget is hallucination.” Now, that is set to change.
The change can’t happen soon enough. As the DCRA makes clear, the Defense Department is already experiencing climate hazards on a daily basis. From regular sunny day flooding at Norfolk Naval Base, home to the military’s largest complex of vulnerable bases, to destructive hurricanes which destroyed significant parts of bases in Florida and North Carolina, the U.S. military has to manage climate risks as part of keeping our troops ready to fight.
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