Climate change affects the entire planet, said Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, and no one nation can solve the problem on its own — not even the United States.
During the “Climate and Defense Summit of the Americas,” being held August 22-23 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, civilian and military representatives from a variety of Caribbean, South, Central, and North American nations met to discuss the environmental challenges they face and possible solutions.
“Climate change is a global security issue, it knows no borders, nor boundaries. It respects no sovereignty, and it can’t be reasoned with,” Hicks said today, adding that the U.S. has co-hosted several events in the past several months, including in Barbados, Peru and Honduras to discuss how to integrate resilience into defense strategies and to conduct security cooperation efforts.
“One thing is clear,” she said. “None of us can tackle the climate challenge alone. We have a better chance [of] tackling the threat when we find ways to confront it together.”
Within the defense community, Hicks said, a top concern for officials has been securing national interests in the face of climate change effects such as heat waves, flooding and storms.
“The U.S. national security community has been clear-eyed about these challenges for decades,” she said. “Earlier this year, the U.S. intelligence community released its annual assessment on the effects of climate change for our world, highlighting how it exacerbates risks in global health, deepens economic challenges and could lead to global unrest. We have a responsibility to act on this knowledge, adapting with common purpose to the threat that climate change poses.” …
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