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remains a long way o
. The ministry
'
s 2011 document acknowledged
'
grave de
-
ciencies
in the levels of equipment needs to project external deployments for cli-
mate-related con
'
ict. Senior generals are reported as admitting that the Spanish
military has made relatively little progress in delineating an overarching strategy
that speci
s role in relation to climate change. After
landmark initiatives committing the armed forces to be an environmental protec-
tion force, the Spanish defence ministry has exhibited little follow-through on such
initiatives.
12
A French military spokesman admits:
es the Ministry of Defence
'
'
we are only at the beginning of looking at
'
this.
France has introduced a few new climate-and-security projects but, insiders
acknowledge, has not gone far in really according climate security top priority at a
political level; it is seen as an issue only amongst a con
'
'
ned circle of the
initiated
.
The struggle for resources for this agenda was a di
cult one in the best of times,
but has become even more challenging in the midst of economic crisis. The UK
'
s
envoy recognised that counter-terrorism and other traditional
security threats
command the government
'
s ear far more readily by virtue of being able to point to
a tangible threat and speci
able risk if action were not taken
-
things much more
di
cult to pinpoint in the case of climate security. Already-running military
operations are given even more unquestioned priority. An EU military sta
cer
reports that the prevailing view is that climate security merely strengthens the case
for the Union
o
to security.
In sum, military thinking has evolved but within fairly narrow parameters. Eur-
opean militaries are certainly not head-in-the-sand climate-deniers, but neither
have they led a genuinely overarching geo-strategic rethink. They tend to think in
terms of what kind of new kit they will need, but not really of how underlying
causes must be factored into their preventive diplomacy and readiness.
13
European
defence ministries are now fully engaged on the question of how climate change is
likely to impose new requirements and conditioning factors on their own opera-
tions and immediate modus operandi. Their senior o
'
s existing
'
comprehensive approach
'
cials admit that they are still
in the process of taking the next step to envisioning how climate change could act
as a powerful modi
er of geopolitics and thus impinge upon the broader contours
of defence policy. Militaries have not approached climate security in a purely dis-
ingenuous fashion
simply to dress up their own, familiar resourcing concerns in
environmental discourse. But it does mean that so far they have judged that their
own role is pertinent to a relatively con
-
ned part of the climate security jigsaw.
There is general agreement that European defence establishments lag behind the
US military
cantly, while the US
has, of course, been a laggard on climate change in general, in its securitised realm
Washington defence planners remain steps ahead of their European counterparts.
Under the 2007 Global Climate Change Security Oversight Act, the US has
'
s engagement with climate change issues. Signi
