Description
This paper examines the present and anticipated challenges that climate change poses to military forces. It explores the strategic and operational changes that are being undertaken by the armed forces of NATO and non-NATO states to prepare for the future under a ‘climate-degraded’ environment. To do this, a comparative analysis of NATO and select non-NATO states is undertaken. Primary data from national security strategies, military doctrines, manuals, speeches, etc, are thematically analysed to identify patterns, and themes between data and assess how various militaries are working on challenges posed by climate change.
This paper advocates integrating the military into the climate accountability and transparency framework. The Armed Forces have managed to avoid accountability and transparency of its GHG emissions even as other sectors have faced increasing scrutiny. This is especially concerning as, according to some sources, the Armed Forces are the “largest single institutional consumer of hydrocarbons in the world.”
The paper will address the pertinent question of what International Studies can achieve over the next 50 years by advocating for more openness and reform of a sector that has hitherto remained outside the climate accountability framework. It seeks to challenge the securitised narrative around emissions from the world’s military forces as the world moves away from the 1.5-degree goal. This paper will examine the inequities associated with the "carbon bootprint" by incorporating an Indigenous perspective from the Global South, thereby highlighting the disproportionate impact and environmental costs of military emissions on marginalized communities.
