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Climate change has been popping up on everyone’s radar over the past few years, and now – NATO is joining the party.
NATO is now considering climate change to be a security issue for not just members of NATO, but for the world as a whole.
What is NATO, how does it work, and how can members work together to manage the newfound and official threat of climate change as a security issue?
NATO, or The North Atlantic Alliance, was formed after the Second World War with the goal to maintain peace across Europe and encourage collaboration amongst members of NATO to protect their freedom moving forward. Ultimately, NATO was inspired following the previous threats the Soviet Union posed on Europe.
Officially forming their alliance in April of 1949, NATO was initially created with 12 countries from North America and Europe – and now currently consists of 31 member countries. Some of these members include France, Germany, Greece, Belgium, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
👉 The members of NATO are committed to democracy, freedom, and developing peaceful resolutions in the event of conflict.
However, one of the most important concepts of NATO is that if one country attacks one Ally – all of the allies are considered to be under attack. Therefore, NATO provides a solid form of communication for countries across the pond for international issues.
Even though NATO was a product of the Cold War as an effort to form an alliance for future threats, the relationship between NATO member countries has evolved to face other issues together – such as climate change.
It’s no secret that global warming is more prominent than ever before: with wildfires in Maui and Canada, record breaking temperatures, and even Biden receiving pressure to declare climate change as a national emergency.
NATO has made numerous efforts to lend a helping hand in the fight against climate change.
For instance, NATO has promoted their own Climate Change and Security Agenda as of March 2021 – which embodies multiple climate-related goals such as to increase awareness amongst allies in NATO on how climate change impacts security, advocating for climate adaptation, reducing emissions created by their military, and creating a broader network to tackle climate security.
👉 The Climate Change and Security Agenda was developed with the incentive for NATO to become a leading organization on how climate change impacts security.
NATO has proceeded to hold annual Climate Change and Security Impact Assessments, which acts in a similar manner to “taking inventory” – where NATO analyzes how their assets, missions, and operations are impacted by climate change. NATO makes use of science and technology, a part of their vast network, to support their climate change research.
In addition to the Climate Change and Security Agenda, NATO also works to fight climate change by implementing various measures – such as developing defense mechanisms in line with the climate crises, building resilience, valuing innovation, and curating disaster response programs in the event they are necessary.
NATO has also done the following to demonstrate its efforts against climate change:
NATO has realised the impact climate change has on their alliance for many years now, but it has never been more of a threat than it is today.
This is due to the continuous natural disasters, weather extremes, rising sea levels, floods, air pollution, and overall depletion of natural resources – all of which can simultaneously implicate military action and cause a rise in regional tension.
👉 NATO recognises that climate change can not only have an impact on their ability to defend members of NATO in the event of an attack, but that climate change itself can provoke a rise in tension and elicit the need for further military action. Therefore, climate change is making it difficult for NATO to provide itself with the resources it needs while also creating an environment where those resources will be needed on a more frequent basis – creating a “catch 22” situation.
Here are just a few more reasons why NATO realises the impending threat of climate change on security:
NATO is home to one of the most extensive alliance funding programs in the world – as NATO makes up 57% of global military spending.
Therefore, any of the 31 members of NATO are likely to suffer the effects of climate change seeing how pivotal NATO is to many of their military defense and security policies.
Here are just a few examples of how NATO member countries could be impacted by the impending threat of climate change on security:
👉 Given the fact that climate change is primarily impacting potential security measures amongst NATO, is imperative that member countries understand that even if their country isn’t impacted – their support system could suffer if another member country apart of NATO is suddenly unable to provide their military resources in the event of invasion.
Ultimately, climate change will continue to have a profound impact on the military and national security – resulting in NATO seeking new ways to implement more sustainable methods and technologies to maintain the initial goals of NATO.
NATO is working to develop new ways that can help drive down the emissions created by NATO itself, in addition to addressing the security concerns created by climate change.
Small but effective efforts, such as NATO partnering with other countries to clean up old weapons and unexploded remnants, can help to prevent both war and future environmental predicaments.
However, NATO is planning more than beach-like clean ups. Here is how NATO plans to address the new security issues caused by climate change:
One of the biggest threats to NATO is how climate change will require more energy consumption in order to maintain their technologies. Therefore, NATO is determined to make use of more energy efficient and green technologies to help ensure armed forces can remain competent without polluting the planet.
In addition to this, NATO is making it a priority to adjust current infrastructure issues and build greater climate resilience for their buildings in conjunction with these new green technologies.
NATO has been developing its environmental protection policy for over 50 years, but now – NATO has a renewed incentive to revamp them once again.
Organizations working with NATO to develop environmental policies include:
The EPWG wil help NATO to implement standardised guidelines, whereas STEEEP can help to implement energy efficiency and technical regulations to ensure more environmentally friendly equipment is used moving forward.
NATO is working to ensure that all forces will receive adequate training to protect the environment. This includes enhancing awareness of energy efficiency measures to be implemented and encouraging military personnel to adjust their everyday lives to be more sustainable.
Environmental education will also be provided by the NATO School Oberammergau and the Military Engineering Centre of Excellence.
NATO will implore their Science and Technology Organization (STO) to continue conducting further research solutions on how to adjust to the technical challenges associated with the military as a result of climate change.
NATO’s Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) will also assist by performing onsite environmental evaluations to get a better understanding of how mammals, the Atlantic Ocean, and marine animals are impacted by climate change.
NATO is determined to facilitate greater international cooperation to pool resources together and fight climate change. This will be done with the Science for Peace and Security, as they will support group activities to tackle the security issues created by climate change.
NATO also joined forces with the following to help boost international cooperation:
Ultimately, even NATO is being threatened by climate change and will impact national security for multiple countries – but NATO has got a good hold of what needs to be done to keep its members safe.
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