Presidential Memorandum -- Climate Change and National Security

Presidential Memorandum -- Climate Change and National Security | whitehouse.gov

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/21/presidential-memorandum-climate-change-and-national-security

The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release September 21, 2016 Presidential Memorandum -- Climate Change and National Security

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following:

Section 1. Purpose. This memorandum establishes a framework and directs Federal departments and agencies (agencies) to perform certain functions to ensure that climate change-related impacts are fully considered in the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans.

Sec. 2. Background. Climate change poses a significant and growing threat to national security, both at home and abroad. Climate change and its associated impacts affect economic prosperity, public health and safety, and international stability. Extended drought, more frequent and severe weather events, heat waves, warming and acidifying ocean waters, catastrophic wildfires, and rising sea levels all have compounding effects on people's health and well-being. Flooding and water scarcity can negatively affect food and energy production. Energy infrastructure, essential for supporting other key sectors, is already vulnerable to extreme weather and may be further compromised. Impacts of a changing climate can create conditions that promote pest outbreaks and the spread of invasive species as well as plant, animal, and human disease, including emerging infectious disease, and these can further undermine economic growth and livelihoods. Impacts can also disrupt transportation service, cutting off vulnerable communities from relief immediately after events and reducing economic output. These conditions, in turn, can stress some countries' ability to provide the conditions necessary for human security. All of these effects can lead to population migration within and across international borders, spur crises, and amplify or accelerate conflict in countries or regions already facing instability and fragility.

Climate change and associated impacts on U.S. military and other national security-related missions and operations could adversely affect readiness, negatively affect military facilities and training, increase demands for Federal support to non-federal civil authorities, and increase response requirements to support international stability and humanitarian assistance needs.

The costs of preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the impacts of climate change are expected to increase in the coming decades. Some meteorological events (i.e., heat waves and intense precipitation) are projected to become more frequent and more severe, occur in geographic areas not previously exposed to such events, inflict more damage, heighten humanitarian needs, undermine development investments, adversely impact public health, contribute to ecological, social, and political instability, compromise diplomatic goals, and undermine national security interests. There is evidence that the rate of climate change and the resulting impacts are accelerating, even as global efforts to curb greenhouse gas pollution are increasing. The United States must take a comprehensive approach to identifying and acting on climate change-related impacts on national security interests, including by maintaining its international leadership on climate issues.

Sec. 3. Policy. It is the policy of the Federal Government to ensure that the current impacts of climate change, and those anticipated in the coming decades, be identified and considered in the development and implementation of relevant national security doctrine, policies, and plans. This policy builds on the following Presidential directives and policies:

(a) the 2015 National Security Strategy, which identified climate change as an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water. It added that increased sea levels and storm surges threaten coastal regions, infrastructure, and property, which in turn threatens the global economy, and compounds the growing costs of preparing and restoring infrastructure;

(b) the President's Climate Action Plan of June 2013, which included actions to help prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change;

(c) Executive Order 13653 of November 1, 2013 (Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change), which directed Federal agency actions to incorporate climate-resilience considerations into agency operations and other mission objectives;

(d) Executive Order 13677 of September 23, 2014 (Climate-Resilient International Development), which set requirements for systematically integrating climate-resilience considerations into U.S. international development work; and

(e) Executive Order 13693 of March 19, 2015 (Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade), which directed Federal actions to improve environmental performance and Federal sustainability.

(a) The Climate and National Security Working Group. The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, or their designees, will chair an interagency working group (Working Group) to coordinate the development of a strategic approach to identify, assess, and share information on current and projected climate-related impacts on national security interests and to inform the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans.

(b) Representation. The Working Group shall include representatives, at the Assistant Secretary or equivalent level, or their designees, from:

(i) identify the U.S. national security priorities that are within the scope of the Working Group's mission;

(ii) develop recommendations for requirements for climate and social science data and intelligence analyses, as appropriate, that support national security interests;

(iii) catalog climate science data, intelligence analyses, and other products and programs that support or should be considered in the development of national security doctrine, policy, and plans. This catalogue shall include climate and social science data repositories and analytical platforms; climate modeling, simulation, and projection capabilities; and information-sharing tools and resources supporting climate risk analyses and assessments, such as the Climate Data Initiative, the Climate Resilience Toolkit, the Global Change Information System, and the National Climate Assessment;

(iv) identify information and program gaps that limit consideration of climate change-related impacts in developing national security doctrine, policies, and plans. Descriptions of these gaps will be provided to Federal science agencies and the United States Intelligence Community to inform future research requirements and priorities, including collection priorities, on climate data, models, simulations, and projections;

(v) facilitate the production and exchange of climate data and information with relevant stakeholders, including the United States Intelligence Community, and private sector partners, as appropriate;

(vi) produce, as appropriate, and make available science-informed intelligence assessments to agencies having responsibilities in the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans in order to identify climate change-related impacts and prioritize actions related thereto;

(vii) establish, by consensus, guidance for Working Group members on coordinating, sharing, and exchanging climate science data among the members, and with the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC);

(viii) provide a venue for enhancing the understanding of the links between climate change-related impacts and national security interests and discussing the opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation activities to address national security issues;

(ix) work to improve the Federal Government's capability and capacity to characterize greenhouse gas sources and sinks accurately at sub-continental scales;

(x) in coordination with the NSTC, recommend research guidelines concerning the Federal Government's ability to detect climate intervention activities;

(xi) develop, by consensus, guidance for Working Group members on building climate resilience in countries vulnerable to climate change-related impacts;

(xii) provide information and Working Group-related progress updates to the Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, established by Executive Order 13653, Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change, on a quarterly basis;

(xiii) take into account defined requirements and current capabilities described in subsection (4)(c)(ii) and (iii) of this memorandum to facilitate the consideration of climate change-related impacts into national security doctrine, policies, and plans. The Working Group shall develop recommended climate data requirements and consider the cost of the production and exchange of this information, and making this information available;

(xiv) have classified and unclassified capabilities, as required and appropriate, to consolidate and make available climate change-related impact information, intelligence analyses, and assessments for access and use by Working Group member agencies;

(xv) identify the most current information on regional, country, and geographic areas most vulnerable to current and projected impacts of climate variability in the near- (current to 10 years), mid- (10 to 30 years), and long- (more than 30 years) term, in order to support assessments of national security implications of climate change, and identify areas most vulnerable to these impacts during these timeframes;

(xvi) develop recommendations for the Secretary of State to help ensure that the work of U.S. embassies, including their planning processes, are better informed by relevant climate change-related analyses; and

(xvii) coordinate on the development of quantitative models, predictive mapping products, and forecasts to anticipate the various pathways through which climate change may affect public health as an issue of national security.

(d) Action Plan. Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Working Group shall, by consensus, develop an Action Plan, which shall identify specific steps that are required to perform the Working Group's functions. The Action Plan shall also include specific objectives, milestones, timelines, and identification of agencies responsible for completion of all actions described therein. The Action Plan shall include recommendations to inform the development of agency implementation plans, as described in section 5 of this memorandum. The Action Plan shall be submitted to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology.

Sec. 5. Federal Agency Implementation Plan. Within 150 days of the date of this memorandum, the agencies listed in subsection 4(b) of this memorandum shall each develop an appropriate implementation plan supporting the policy of this memorandum. Such implementation plans may be classified, as required, to meet specific agency requirements. Implementation plans shall consider for inclusion, but not be limited to, a description of how the respective agencies will accomplish the following actions:

(a) identify, sustain, and strengthen climate-related data repositories, tools, and modeling products that inform climate change-related impacts on national security;

(b) identify climate change-related risks to agency missions, and risks that may be caused by agency policies, programs, and actions concerning international development objectives, fragility, and regional stability;

(c) pursue agency adaptation strategies and methods that address climate change-related impacts on national security and homeland defense;

(d) identify and implement climate change-related information-sharing opportunities and arrangements through international development activities, military-to-military engagements, and government-to-government climate-related data exchanges;

(e) identify economic considerations arising from the impacts of climate change globally and the resulting specific impacts on national security, including macroeconomic analyses and data-sharing mechanisms;

(f) identify the potential impact of climate change on human mobility, including migration and displacement, and the resulting impacts on national security;

(g) identify climate change-related impacts on global water and food security and nutrition and the resulting impacts on national security, and recommend actions to mitigate these impacts;

(h) identify climate change-related global health security concerns affecting humans, animals, and plants, and develop options to address them;

(i) develop an agency-specific approach to address climate-related hazards and threats to national security;

(j) determine and act on climate change-related threats to infrastructure at the asset, system, and regional level and act to strengthen the safety, security, and resilience of infrastructure critical to national security; and

(k) incorporate climate change-related impact information and considerations into agency technical and executive education and training programs.

(a) "Adaptation" refers to the adjustment in natural or human systems in anticipation of or in response to a changing environment in a way that effectively uses beneficial opportunities or reduces negative effects.

(b) "Climate" refers to the prevailing meteorological conditions over a period of several decades, including the typical frequency of occurrence and duration of extreme storms, heat waves, precipitation, droughts, cloudiness, winds, ocean temperatures, and other events that a region is likely to encounter.

(c) "Climate change" refers to detectable changes in one or more climate system components over multiple decades, including changes in the average temperature of the atmosphere or ocean; changes in regional precipitation, winds, and cloudiness; and changes in the severity or duration of extreme weather, including droughts, floods, and storms.

(d) "Climate modeling" refers to the mathematical representation of the set of interdependent components of the climate system, including the atmosphere and ocean, cryosphere, ecology, land use, natural greenhouse gas emissions, and anthropogenic greenhouse emissions.

(e) "Fragility" refers to a condition that results from a dysfunctional relationship between state and society and the extent to which that relationship fails to produce policy outcomes that are considered effective or legitimate.

(f) "Global health security" refers to activities required, both proactive and reactive, to minimize vulnerability to acute public health events that endanger the collective health of populations living across geographical regions and international boundaries and includes the efforts of the Global Health Security Agenda to establish capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to disease threats, whether naturally occurring, deliberate, or accidental.

(g) "United States Intelligence Community" has the same definition as used in section 3003 of title 50, United States Code (Definitions), and section 3.5(h) of Executive Order 12333 of December 4, 1981 (United States Intelligence Activities), as amended.

(h) "National security" refers to the protection of the Nation and its people and interests.

(i) "Resilience" refers to the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and to withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable laws, regulations, Executive Orders, and policies, including the National Security

Strategy and the Climate Action Plan, and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(b) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c) All activities conducted pursuant to this memorandum shall be undertaken consistent with all applicable classification requirements set forth in law, Executive Orders, regulation, and policy.

(d) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

The one thing that’s positive in this bill is providing funding for a new Polar Icebreaker to replace our decades old one, and provide additional funding for the US Coast Guard.

As for “climate change” accelerating migration -
Obola’s destabilizing five middle eastern countries has already displaced Millions by way of bloody jihad it’s he created...

FACT SHEET: President Obama Takes A Historic Step To Address The National Security Implications Of Climate Change | whitehouse.gov

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/21/fact-sheet-president-obama-takes-historic-step-address-national-security

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 21, 2016
FACT SHEET: President Obama Takes A Historic Step To Address The National Security Implications Of Climate Change

“Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water. The present day effects of climate change are being felt from the Arctic to the Midwest. Increased sea levels and storm surges threaten coastal regions, infrastructure, and property. In turn, the global economy suffers, compounding the growing costs of preparing and restoring infrastructure.” – U.S. National Security Strategy, February 15, 2015

Today, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum (PM) on Climate Change and National Security, establishing a policy that the impacts of climate change must be considered in the development of national security-related doctrine, policies, and plans. To achieve this, 20 Federal agencies and offices with climate science, intelligence analysis, and national security policy development missions and responsibilities will collaborate to ensure the best information on climate impacts is available to strengthen our national security. The Presidential Memorandum was released alongside a report from the National Intelligence Council identifying pathways through which climate change will likely pose significant national security challenges for the United States over the next two decades, including threatening the stability of other countries.

There is current and growing attention paid by national security experts to ways in which climate impacts are adversely affecting national security now, and will stress national security even more dramatically in the coming decades. In addition to tackling the impacts from climate change by reducing emissions, there is a need for increased collaboration among the climate science, intelligence, and national security policy communities to prepare for the impacts that we can no longer avoid.

Today’s announcement builds on steps the Obama Administration has already taken to address emerging national security challenges impacted by climate change. For example, because climate change in the Arctic will necessitate greater presence in the region’s open seas, the Administration proposed in 2015 to accelerate the acquisition of a replacement heavy icebreaker for the Arctic and began planning for the construction of additional icebreakers. This year, the Administration requested $150 million from Congress to accelerate production of a new Polar Icebreaker, and the Administration continues to call on Congress to provide this critical funding to the U.S. Coast Guard this year.

PRESIDENT OBAMA DIRECTS FEDERAL AGENCIES TO TAKE ACTION TO ADDRESS THE NATIONAL SECURITY
IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Today’s Presidential Memorandum adds an essential element to the President’s comprehensive approach to addressing climate change at all levels, providing the policy guidance and direction needed to ensure that climate risks are fully characterized and considered in our national security planning, through:

Establishing a dedicated Federal Climate and National Security Working Group, led by representatives from the National Security Council staff and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and including over 20 Federal agencies and offices with climate science, intelligence, and national security responsibilities. The Working Group will identify the U.S. national security priorities related to climate change and national security, and develop methods to share climate science and intelligence information to inform national security policies and plans.

The Climate and National Security Working Group will create a Climate Change and National Security Action Plan within 90 days to identify specific steps that are required to perform the Working Group’s functions, which includes facilitating the exchange of climate data and information with the intelligence community and identifying gaps; recommending research guidelines concerning the Federal Government’s ability to detect climate intervention activities; identifying the most current information on regional, country, and geographic areas most vulnerable to current and projected impacts of climate variability for the next 30 years; and developing recommendations for the Secretary of State to help ensure that the work of U.S. embassies, including their planning processes, are better informed by relevant climate change-related analyses.

Directing individual agencies to develop Implementation Plans addressing climate-related hazards and threats to national security; identifying economic considerations arising from the impacts of climate change globally and the resulting specific impacts on national security, human mobility (including migration and displacement), global water and food security, nutrition, public health, and infrastructure; identifying climate change-related risks to agency missions; and identifying risks that may be caused by agency policies, programs, and actions concerning international development objectives, fragility, and regional stability.

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL RELEASES
REPORT ON THE
IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY OF ANTICIPATED
CLIMATE CHANGE

Today, the National Intelligence Council released a report finding that the effects of climate change are “likely to pose significant national security challenges for the United States over the next two decades,” including by stressing our military operations and bases. Globally, the report found that climate-related national security disruptions are underway now and climate change and its resulting effects are likely to pose wide-ranging national security challenges for the United States and other countries over the next 20 years through a number of pathways including:

    Overwhelming a state’s capacity to respond or recover, its authority can be so undermined as to lead to large-scale political instability. In the most dramatic cases, state authority may collapse partially or entirely;
    Decreasing water and disputes over access to arable land will increase the risk of conflict between people who share river basins, aquifers, or land areas;
    Contributing to migrations that exacerbate social and political tensions, some of which could overwhelm host governments and population; and
    Straining the capacity of US and allied armed forces to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

These effects will be especially pronounced as populations continue to concentrate in climate-vulnerable locations such as coastal areas, water-stressed regions, and ever-growing cities.

While President Obama continues to pursue all practical actions to reduce harmful greenhouse gases and other carbon sources, it is important to evaluate and pursue the actions needed to identify the current and projected climate impacts on our national security, and develop actions to mitigate these impacts.

Among other things, this creates an interagency Climate change National security group to remind us that the threat of “climate change” (which we can’t do anything about), deserves more attention and effort, than supporting ISIS and flooding the world with MILLIONS of Muslim hornets (which we can do something about).

Eff’ers.

https://climateandsecurity.org/2016/09/22/our-take-new-intelligence-and-presidential-memos-on-climate-change-and-security/#more-9895

The Center for Climate & Security
Exploring The Security Risks of Climate Change
Our Take: New Intelligence and Presidential Memos on Climate Change and National Security
Posted by Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia

SouthPorticoOn September 21, 2016, the Obama Administration made two significant announcements related to climate change and national security – one which highlights the latest intelligence on the nature of the risk, and the second which lays the foundation for managing that risk across agencies. This included:

A report from the National Intelligence Council (NIC): “Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change”;
A Presidential Memorandum (PM): Climate Change and National Security, establishing an organizational framework for managing climate change risks to national security, to be be run by the National Security Advisor and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

These releases both reflect the reality of this accelerating risk, as identified by many in the bipartisan national security community to date, as well as practical next steps recommended by the Climate and Security Advisory Group.

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) report

The NIC report warns of both the very near-term security implications of climate change – including those that arise from “distinct extreme weather events” in the next five years – as well as likely risks on the twenty-year timescale associated with “broader systemic changes” such as sea level rise.

The report affirms what a growing national security consensus has made clear: climate change presents a “strategically-significant risk” to the United States. Indeed, the NIC report notes that the effects of climate change are already underway, and “are likely to pose wide-ranging national security challenges for the United States and other countries over the next 20 years.” It identifies six “pathways” for these effects:

    Threats to the stability of countries.
    Heightened social and political tensions.
    Adverse effects on food prices and availability.
    Increased risks to human health.
    Negative impacts on investments and economic competitiveness.
    Potential climate discontinuities and secondary surprises.

The Presidential Memorandum (PM)

The NIC report, which outlines the key national security risks of climate change, was accompanied by the President’s issuance of a Presidential Memorandum (PM) on Climate Change and National Security, which outlines a near-term solution for how the U.S. government can “ensure that climate change-related impacts are fully considered in the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans [emphasis added].” In other words, the U.S. should go about managing national security risks as it always has, with the added benefit of having an improved understanding of the changing risk landscape.

Historically, as other risks to national security have risen to the fore (e.g. nuclear weapons proliferation), the U.S. government has often found it in its best interest to establish strategic interagency responses led by very senior leaders in the national security establishment. This has served the function of making sure that significant threats would be met quickly, coherently, and with all necessary hands on deck.

The PM on climate change and national security is a first step at doing just that. Indeed, it represents the highest level of action by the U.S. government (in terms of the seniority of the leadership assigned the task) to specifically address the national security implications of climate change – designating the National Security Advisor and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (both Assistants to the President) to manage the problem. This marks an important elevation of the issue, perhaps driven by a confluence of events: evidence of climate-related security risks already underway, growing concerns in the military and intelligence communities, and a clear bipartisan consensus. It also very closely reflects a key recommendation from senior national security and defense leaders in the recently-released Climate and Security Advisory Group (CSAG) Briefing Book (pg 7), which calls for “a senior climate-security leadership position on the NSC Staff, reporting directly to the National Security Advisor, to help integrate plans to address climate-related impacts on national and international security priorities.”

To drive a whole-of-government approach that is commensurate to the risk, the PM also calls for the creation of a “Climate and National Security Working Group” which includes representatives “at the Assistant Secretary or equivalent level, or their designees.” The job of this high-level working group will be to coordinate information-sharing on climate change and national security risks, as well as “inform the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans.” This is consistent with another CSAG recommendation (1.9, on page 10) aimed at creating a more coherent, high-level response to this major challenge:

1.9. Establish an interagency Climate Change and Security Group, led by the Senior Climate and Security Director at the NSC, that includes officials of relevant departments and agencies at the Assistant Secretary level or equivalent with an emphasis on strengthening data monitoring and assessment methodologies, and integrating approaches within and across agencies to better anticipate and respond to climate change and security issues;

Though some U.S. government departments and agencies are already doing a lot to incorporate these risks into their planning (see the 2016 DoD Directive on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience), this PM may help facilitate such actions across the U.S. government in a more comprehensive and coordinated way. In all, the PM marks a beginning of the more “comprehensive policy” called for by our bipartisan Climate Security Consensus Project, which will hopefully involve a larger scale of actions that are commensurate to the risk.

In response to the release of both the NIC report and the PM, members of the Center for Climate and Security staff and Advisory Board offered their own takes on the two documents:

Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell, Co-Founders and Presidents, the Center for Climate and Security:

Though there are other immediate security risks the U.S. must pay close attention to, including terrorism and North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability, we need to walk and chew gum at the same time. The intelligence community is telling us that climate change is already impacting our security in a very significant way, and will continue to make the U.S. less secure over the next twenty years. The Presidential Memorandum, which closely tracks our recent recommendations from senior national security and defense leaders, is an important step towards better organizing our government to deal with that risk.

General Ronald Keys, U.S. Air Force (ret), Advisory Board member with the Center for Climate and Security, Chairman of the CNA Advisory Board and former Commander of Air Combat Command:

The Presidential Memorandum and National Intelligence Council report are certainly a step in the right direction, and congruent with what we have been analyzing and recommending. It is a needed effort to get all the interested parties on the same sheet of music, and to make sure there is a whole of government approach that leverages individual agency actions and prioritizes filling gaps, including in intelligence. Some additional next steps are outlined by our Climate and Security Advisory Group – including the need to put key people in charge to drive action on climate and security issues (at the White House, National Security Council, and relevant agencies). Some of this is going to take time… but we have precious little left.

Rear Admiral Jonathan White, U.S. Navy (ret), Advisory Board member with the Center for Climate and Security, CEO of the Ocean Leadership Consortium, and former Oceanographer of the Navy:

I welcome the President’s new policy and actions regarding climate change and national security. The national security community must come together and lead concrete efforts to better understand and counter the risks that our changing climate and ocean present to global (and thus national) security. If we do not act now, these changes will undoubtedly exacerbate geo-political instability and compound security concerns around the world, and reduce the ability of the United States and our allies to respond to threats as our own security infrastructure is compromised.

Hon. Sherri Goodman, Advisory Board member at the Center for Climate and Security, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security), founder of the CNA Military Advisory Board and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center:

I applaud the announcement by the President of increased efforts to combat the national security risks of climate change. The Presidential Memorandum and National Intelligence Council report make clear that we must act today to reduce risks to our nation, our troops and our military installations. As the CNA Military Advisory Board has stated, since 2007, climate change is a threat multiplier for instability and threatens our daily lives as sea levels rise, storms surge, and drought grips even more key agricultural regions of the world.

These common sense efforts create a “whole of government” approach to ensure that climate risks are integrated across foreign policy and national security strategy, policy and planning processes, enabling the US to continue its essential international leadership on climate change. This will enable future generations of Americans to lead safer, healthier lives in resilient communities.

Rear Admiral David W. Titley, USN (ret), Advisory Board member at the Center for Climate and Security, Founding Director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State University, and former Oceanographer of the Navy:

I was happy to see that much of the wording of the Presidential Memorandum reflects similar themes to our recently released Bi-Partisan Statement on Climate Security. The direct and indirect impacts of climate change will magnify and accelerate the existing risks to our security, while at the same time pressurize our Defense infrastructure and its ability to respond to future crises.

General Gordon Sullivan, USA (ret), member of the Climate and Security Advisory Group, former Chief of Staff of the Army, and former President of the Association of the U.S. Army:

I know some people are not convinced about climate change, but one of the lessons I’ve learned in life is you will never have 100 percent certainty about everything. The potential national security implications of climate change would be destabilizing in an already unstable world.

For me, climate change – bringing extreme heat, severe weather, drought and disease – is inevitable unless we change the way of doing business. A decision requiring the federal government to consider the impacts of climate change with developing national security polices is a prudent step, just as our national security policies are shaped by other threats.

Our challenge as a nation is to do everything we can to prevent a potentially destructive threat, and to carefully weigh what steps we must take if we fail.

Shiloh Fetzek, Senior Fellow for International Affairs at the Center for Climate and Security:

Taken together, the Presidential Memorandum and National Intelligence Council report represent the kind of comprehensive, multi-agency responses all national governments should have in place to anticipate and manage the serious hazards and threats that climate change poses to National Security. The actions and priorities outlined in these documents lay the groundwork for the next Administration to continue to address this non-partisan security issue robustly, which will ultimately help preserve US national security and international security as the climate changes in coming decades. Without this level of commitment and integration, the US risks being caught off-guard by climate-related crises that may have grave regional and geopolitical consequences, like the conflict in Syria.

Following the NIC report and PM, the U.S. government will need to take the subsequent step of building both the leadership and institutional capacity necessary for comprehensively tackling climate risks to national security.

See the Climate and Security Advisory Group Briefing Book for a list of further recommendations along these lines.

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