Climate & securityClimate change a security risk second only to terrorism: Aussie defense report

The Australian government’s energy White Paper made headlines for its reluctance to mention the term “climate change” — but a forthcoming defense White Paper does not share these reservations.

A report on community consultations conducted by the authors of the defense White Paper highlights the consequences of climate change, extreme weather events, and environmental pressures as a significant security risk for Australia – second only to the risks posed by terrorism.

“Many people suggested [climate change] would lead to an increased need for humanitarian and disaster relief activities, including by armed forces,” the report released on Wednesday said. “Some people also noted that climate change and resource stresses, such as food and water shortages, could drive unregulated cross-border movements of people.”

The community consultations also unearthed “considerable interest in evolving the ADF [Australian Defense Force] to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and manage its environmental impact.”

“That interest was not confined to environmental groups, and such efforts were viewed as being not only good management of resources, but also likely to improve the ADF’s operational flexibility and survivability.”

The Guardian quotes the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s executive director, Peter Jennings, who oversaw the consultation process, to say that recognizing the impact of climate change did not actually require anyone to “take a position on the causes of climate change.” It was a simple strategic calculation, and one the defense White Paper needed to grapple with.

“I think our thinking here is simply to say that defense needs to make sure it’s able to manage, as it were, strategic consequences of climate change,” Jennings told the Guardian.

“Even if we don’t need to take a position on the causes of climate change we do need to understand how defense forces might be called upon to respond to effects which are the products of climate change. That’s something that needs to be addressed in the white paper context.”

Jennings said defense force personnel were often required to help respond to extreme climate events in Australia such as floods, bushfires and cyclones. “Again, the question is, if we’re seeing these extreme weather events — put to one side the cause of these things — we do need to have adequate defense plans in place to respond to them.”

 Read more in The Longest Conflict: Australia’s Climate Security Challenge (Center for Policy Development, June 2015)