Climate & securityClimate change heightening the risk of conflict and war

Published 3 November 2015

Thirty of Australia’s leading minds from defense, academia, policy think tanks, and other government agencies have joined together for discussions over two days last week for Australia’s first climate security summit. The summit participants agreed that increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events are heightening the risk of conflict and increasing the displacement of people. The summit organizers quote Brigadier-General Wendell Christopher King (Ret.), the Chief Academic Officer at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College, who said: “[Climate change] is like getting embroiled in a war that lasts 100 years — there is no exit-strategy.”

Thirty of Australia’s leading minds from defense, academia, policy think tanks, and other government agencies have joined together for discussions over two days last week for Australia’s first climate security summit.

The roundtable members wrestled with many issues of fundamental importance to Australia’s national security, including the risks posed by climate change to geopolitical stability, the challenges faced by the Australian Defense Force (ADF) in providing humanitarian assistance in response to more frequent and extreme severe weather events, and how the ADF can best prepare for the considerable strategic risk and uncertainty posed by climate change.

Australia’s Climate Council notes that increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events are heightening the risk of conflict and increasing the displacement of people.

One of the primary areas of discussion was the steps that need to be taken to align Australia’s defense preparedness with allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

Summit co-chairs, former ADF chief Admiral Chris Barrie (Ret.) and the Climate Council’s Professor Will Steffen, joined by key summit participants Rear Admiral David Titley (Ret.) and Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti (Ret.), issued the following co-chair statement:

1. The Australian government should take immediate and significant steps to mainstream climate change into defense planning

  • Governments in the United Kingdom and the United States have taken significant legislative and strategic steps to ensure that climate change is integrated into defense planning. The United States has mandated that their military forces address the risks of climate change as a routine part of all mission planning.
  • In Australia, comparatively less action is being taken by the government to ensure that the ADF is prepared for the security risks posed by climate change.
  • The upcoming Australian Defense White Paper must address the security implications posed by a changing climate.
  • Security is a whole of government task and therefore the challenge needs to be viewed more broadly than the ADF.