Environment: –
In its June 2008 National Intelligence Assessment on The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change to 2030, the National Intelligence Council stated:
We judge global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for U.S. national security interests over the next 20 years . . . . The United States depends on a smooth-functioning international system ensuring the flow of trade and market access to critical raw materials such as oil and gas, and security for its allies and partners. Climate change and climate change policies could affect all of these — domestic stability in a number of key states, the opening of new sea lanes and access to raw materials, and the global economy more broadly — with significant geopolitical consequences.
Fourteen years and four presidential administrations later, the United States is still struggling to elicit a national consensus regarding climate change and to clearly establish itself as a leader in the Environment and Climate industries.
This report examines two integrally related, thriving and growing “industries” — Environment and Climate Change. The report seeks to reflect the truly unique nature of these industries and the challenges associated with their given status as industries, while communicating the vital role they play in supporting not only U.S. national security, but also domestic and global human security.
For the United States to meet its national security objectives, it must first shape the conditions for greater human security. The U.S., its allies, and its partners, must provide protection both from and of the environment by anticipating, mitigating, and adapting to environmental degradation in general and climate change in particular. The purpose of the Environment and Climate Industry Study, accordingly, has been to assess U.S. and international competitiveness in these critically related spaces of security.
To guide its efforts, the Environment/Climate seminar applied an analytical approach that surveyed the business, security, and regulatory aspects of the Environment and Climate Change industries through a broad series of discussions with environmental experts and site visits to examine environmental principles and practices in the field. Some 40 lecturers shared perspectives from their respective fields, including legal, defense, environmental justice, activism, economics, and business
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