National Security - Climate Extra

Kerry Urges U.S. Intelligence Officials To Verify Countries’ Climate Pledges

White House climate envoy John Kerry is calling on the U.S. intelligence community to verify the veracity of greenhouse gas reduction pledges by China, Russia and other countries, one of a series of steps he is seeking to bolster the use of national security resources to drive the Biden administration’s climate agenda. Kerry’s calls, which also seek to bolster the role of climate change in intelligence threat assessments, could help the administration hold countries to their voluntary emissions targets under...

DOD Supply Chain ‘Greening’ Expected To Bolster Markets, Says Goodman

Sherri Goodman, senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and former Department of Defense (DOD) deputy undersecretary for environmental security in the Clinton administration, says she sees new Biden administration directives for DOD to “green” its supply chain and invest hundreds of millions of dollars into electric vehicles (EVs) and biofuels bolstering national markets. “DOD is really looking hard now at how it can green its own supply chain, both to reduce costs and improve emission performance. So this...

House Appropriators Hear Calls To Create New DOD Clean Energy Office

Former Pentagon and military officials are urging House appropriators to take steps to ensure the Defense Department (DOD) plays a leading role in modernizing the grid to achieve climate policy goals, including creating a new office to coordinate clean-energy innovation and climate research as well as a fund to deploy new technologies. “Too often, improved energy and climate technologies do not make it beyond what some call the ‘Valley of Death’ in technology deployment because there is no acquisition requirement...

Pentagon Urged To Overhaul Acquisition Programs To Address Climate

The Climate 21 Project, a group of former top Obama officials, is urging the Defense Department (DOD) to issue a “directive” making climate change central to the mission of its combatant commands while setting up a “strike force” to oversee major acquisition reforms that will impact energy purchases across the economy. “The President has made clear that tackling the climate crisis is a core mission of the [DOD] on par with the Pentagon’s highest obligations to the American people,” the...

Biden orders review of climate effects on immigration

President Joe Biden has ordered his national security advisor to assess the impacts of climate change on immigration and the national security effects of such climate refugees, an unprecedented step that underscores his effort to make climate change a core prong of his security agenda. Biden signed a Feb. 4 order requiring National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, within six months, to report on the impact of climate change on forced migration and recommend steps for protecting resettled refugees displaced “directly...

Sullivan Says Fixing Climate ‘Crisis’ Toughens U.S. Stance Against Rivals

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, is making the case that combating climate change and its adverse effects on Americans will strengthen the U.S. position against adversaries like China because domestic stability translates into strength when countering foreign foes. “Foreign policy is domestic policy and domestic policy is foreign policy, and at the end of the day, right now, the most profound national security challenge facing the United States is getting our own house in order,” he told...

Biden Faces Push To Cooperate, Compete With China On Climate Issues

The incoming Biden administration must renew cooperation with China on international climate mitigation policy given the two countries’ roles as the world’s top carbon emitters, one national security analyst says, even as the U.S. will be competing with its chief rival in Asia on a range of issues, including clean energy exports. “It’s really important that the U.S. be able to walk and chew gum when it comes to China,” said Alex Hackbarth, who studies climate and energy security issues...

Biden picks former Kerry aide as NSC climate director

President-elect Joe Biden has selected a former State Department official who served under then-Secretary of State John Kerry as director of the National Security Council’s assessment of climate change and energy risks. Melanie Nakagawa, who serves on the Biden transition team and was deputy assistant secretary for energy transformation at the State Department in the Obama administration, will be the NSC’s director for climate and energy. In that role, Nakagawa will be central to helping define the Biden administration’s unprecedented...

Override Of Trump’s Defense Bill Veto Gives Biden New Climate Tools

The Republican-controlled Senate’s decision to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the annual defense policy bill hands the incoming Biden administration new tools for measuring and limiting greenhouse gas emissions as part of its ambitious approach to combating climate change. The Senate in an 81-13 vote on Jan. 1 enacted the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), following a similar overwhelmingly bipartisan veto override vote by the House on Dec. 28. The override -- the first of a...

Trump Vetoes Defense Policy Bill With Key Climate, Toxics Provisions

President Donald Trump has vetoed the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill that includes several environment provisions concerning the Defense Department’s (DOD) cleanup of toxic substances and climate change adaptation. Trump in his Dec. 23 veto message reiterated a series of criticisms of the bill, including that it fails to limit liability protections for social media companies and forces DOD to remove the names of former Confederate leaders from military installations. He argues social media’s current liability shield “facilitates the...

Defense Sector Expects NDAA To Jump-Start DOD Climate Risk Reviews

Requirements for the Pentagon to update its climate change “roadmap” included in a massive defense policy bill sent to President Donald Trump will likely jump-start stalled efforts on assessing climate-driven risks for military readiness and contractor supply chains, says a leading defense industry official. “In terms of the roadmap, I think just having a start and understanding what the problem is, I think is good,” says Nick Jones, regulatory policy director of the National Defense Industrial Association, referring to the...

Biden touts climate background in tapping Rice as domestic policy chief

President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of Susan Rice to be White House domestic policy chief is based in part on her experience addressing climate change as part of the Obama administration’s national security team, further underscoring Biden’s commitment to making climate considerations central across the government. Rice served as national security adviser to President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017, when she dealt with “global health, climate policy, international trade, development and economic issues” while overseeing relations with both allies and...

Biden includes climate in task list for Defense secretary pick

President-elect Joe Biden has selected retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to be his secretary of Defense, saying the former U.S. Central Command leader will be tasked with “addressing the accelerating security threat posed by the climate crisis,” among his other responsibilities at the Pentagon. Biden’s transition team made the announcement Dec. 8, describing an expansive role for the Defense Department that also includes helping the government respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement reflects Biden’s broad view of national security, including...

NDAA Deal Softens Climate Change Language For DOD Adaptation Strategy

Senate and House conferees have agreed to a defense authorization bill that preserves but walks back provisions of the House-passed version of the legislation that requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to update its “roadmap” for responding to the effects of climate change. The final agreement strips all references to “climate change” from that portion of the massive bill while retaining the requirement that DOD update what is now referred to as an “adaptation roadmap.” The move underscores the continued...

Congress Mulls DOD Climate ‘Roadmap’ Amid Biden’s Security Focus

House and Senate negotiators are debating whether the Pentagon should update its “roadmap” for assessing, and responding to, climate change effects, as the incoming Biden administration’s initial personnel announcements are stressing the connection between national security and combating climate change. Leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees are negotiating differences in each chamber’s version of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including whether to adopt a House-passed plan requiring the secretary of Defense to update...

Biden Tasks Kerry To ‘Reimagine’ National Security As Climate Envoy

President-elect Joe Biden is tasking former Secretary of State John Kerry, who he has tapped as a presidential climate envoy, to “reimagine” U.S. national security amid an existential climate crisis by assembling a foreign policy team that is being asked to view global threats as interconnected. In addition to his role as a climate envoy, Kerry will have a seat as a principal on the National Security Council (NSC), a move that elevates efforts to address climate change beyond the...

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