A U.S. Framework for Climate Resilience and Security

Around the world today, our people and economies are increasingly impacted by the severe consequences of the climate crisis.  Coastal communities and military bases are threatened by storms and flooding. Extreme heat, now a regular phenomenon with each passing summer, costs lives, reduces productivity, and damages critical infrastructure.  Vital breadbaskets face historic droughts, and are no longer able to regularly deliver on the food security needs of their regions.  Record-breaking fires ravage forests, spill into communities, and pollute the air.

The U.S. national security community has long understood climate change to be a “threat multiplier,” intensifying existing security threats and vulnerabilities, and decreasing resilience.  But today, the devastating impacts of the climate crisis increasingly are themselves the new direct threats from which we must protect our communities.  We are witnessing cycles of cascading climate impacts and increasing instability, at home and across the globe.

U.S. national security requires addressing the growing impacts of the climate crisis.

As described in our recent U.S. National Climate Assessment, growing climate vulnerabilities have profound impacts for U.S. national security, economic, and strategic interests.  As our military is increasingly called upon to respond to disasters, we risk stretching defense resources.  At the same time, our critical infrastructure—including relatively new infrastructure resulting from the increased investments in the clean-energy transition—risks being degraded more rapidly by the changing environment.  Around the world, changing temperature, precipitation, ecosystems, and ocean conditions threaten supply chains, increase prices, affect the affordability and availability of insurance, and strain public coffers, forcing all levels of government to shift funds away from other priorities.  And alongside these strains, we are witnessing vicious cycles of fragility, where communities may have limited capacity to recover from one disaster to the next.  Simply put, climate hazards are threatening the long-term stability of our governments, our economies, and our global security.

The United States has prioritized the need to both mitigate and build resilience to these strategic threats.  This new U.S. Framework for Climate Resilience and Security prescribes three actions for turning this prioritization into implementation.

1. Assess Climate-Related Threats and Opportunities: Without assessment of the impacts of climate change on our security and defense, it is difficult for our leaders to adapt to a rapidly changing environment or to plan strong responses.  The United States has state-of-the-art scientific capabilities, and thanks to this strategic edge, we are able to predict where climate impacts will exacerbate threats–and act effectively in advance.
   
2. Partner for an Integrated Approach: Each federal department and agency has unique capabilities and comparative advantages in our response to climate hazards, but coordination is critical to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of our communities.  Similar partnerships must also extend to partners overseas at the national, regional, and local levels, civil society, the private sector, philanthropies, and international organizations, to enable the effective use of resources and information, and to incorporate and respond to the needs of those who are impacted most.
   
3. Invest in Collective Resilience: Increasing the resilience of our own investments—including those in our supply chains, physical installations, or the provision of emergency assistance when challenges arise—advances national security objectives and yields economic results.  As our deployment of mitigation resources intensifies through the clean energy transition, we must protect them with commensurate consideration for and investment in resilience that can not only protect lives, and livelihoods, but avoid or lessen future humanitarian and economic assistance needs.

Ultimately, these are the investments for which Americans across the country, and our partners across the world, are asking.  These are not just about the rising threats of the climate crisis, but ultimately they are critical ingredients for ensuring  economic security.  Realizing these goals will protect lives and property, prepare first responders and defense forces, and improve livelihoods globally.

We will bring to bear the leadership of the United States to confront these threats, and bring our cutting-edge analysis, partnership, and investment to partners globally.  In doing so, we will be able to turn many of these growing vulnerabilities into strategic opportunities.  Through these efforts, we will build a more resilient and sustainable global security—one that asserts that projecting and withstanding climate shocks and disruptions is better done through partnership and investment.

Signed,

John Podesta
Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy

Jake Sullivan
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

The full U.S. Framework for Climate Resilience and Security can be found here.