Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the impact of climate change on security and emphasising the need for multilateral
cooperation between armed forces. The strategy emphasises the role that the mili-
tary must play and the need for it to be fully conscious of how far climate issues
will form a pivotal part of its future geo-strategic challenges; it claimed that the
armed forces were already being remodelled with a new type of
'
in mind. Despite coming relatively late to the consensus view that climate change
has repercussions on security, Spain
'
climate mission
s Socialist government became one of the most
explicit of all EU states in committing its armed forces to multilateral operations in
climate-induced scenarios. This commitment in part re
'
ected Spain
'
s relatively
'
higher climate-security risk compared with other EU countries. Spain
s vanguard
role has been noted in its creating the aforementioned Military Emergencies Unit
to respond to climate disasters. By 2012 this had undertaken 90 interventions,
mainly within Spain itself.
5
In many cases, however, the limits to armed forces
engagement have been
especially notable. The German Defence Policy Guidelines 2011 contain very little
on climate security.
6
German policy has not integrated the defence ministry as
much as British strategy, in a conscious move to avoid a perception that there is a
military lead on the new agenda. Germany has declined to appoint an equivalent
to the UK
'
s envoy that sits astride the foreign and defence ministries, preferring to
keep the lead for climate security purely within the foreign ministry. Rather, the
Auswärtiges Amt has consciously worked more with the development, environ-
mental and education ministries.
While the Danish Defence agreement 2013
'
17 stipulates that the Danish armed
forces are expected to contribute to the realisation of the government
-
'
s goals
within the climate
ng up an Arctic preparedness force,
the mandate is limited to the Danish armed forces reducing their own environ-
mental footprint and energy consumption.
7
One semi-o
eld and commits to bee
cial Danish study con-
cluded that Danish security thinking still
for
rendering operational the well accepted agenda of climate security.
8
The 2009
Finnish Security and Defense Policy contains two brief pages on climate security
that forward little in the way of tangible policy change. The Netherlands Defence
doctrine does not contain any particular reference to climate challenges.
9
The
National Security Strategy of the Republic of Poland of 2009 is bereft of opera-
tional speci
lacks a
'
comprehensive strategy
'
cs on the climate issue.
10
The 2011 Security Strategy of the Czech
Republic identi
es climate security as a priority but in a generic sense and not
linked in an identi
able way to changes in defence strategy.
11
Other member
states, such as Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and Estonia, have declined to
ag
up the issue publicly in their strategy documents.
Notwithstanding their ministry
cers themselves
acknowledge that a full integration of climate change factors into strategic planning
'
s new deliberations, Spanish o
