Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
protecting Europe itself from natural disasters and climate-related stresses. Some
detect trends in military spending towards transforming military forces into some-
thing akin to home guards with the task of defending domestically against climate
ravages. This is part and parcel of the kind of
that many experts
have predicted and indeed advocated. It also chimes with the cuts in defence
expenditure made by nearly all European states in the wake of the post-2008
'
lifeboat mentality
'
nancial crisis. The decrease in defence budgets is leading many in European armed
forces to argue that they should focus more narrowly on core defensive functions
to avoid dangerous overstretch.
The EU adopted an Adaptation Strategy in April 2013 that was focused on
such internal
ects across the Union
would undermine European unity; that the cost of not acting would amount to
€
initiatives. This predicted that di
erential e
ects could cause 90,000 deaths in
the EU by the same year. The strategy recognises that internal adaptation measures
remain at
250 billion per year by 2050; and that climate e
in Europe. Fifteen member states have national adaptation
strategies that are just beginning to engage in meaningful projects. European
Commission e
'
an early stage
'
orts are even more embryonic.
The new strategy commits the EU to better exchange of member states
orts at coordinating these national e
best
practice; peer pressure to ensure all member states implement national strategies;
awareness-raising across Europe; more research; capacity-building projects; and
EU-wide vulnerability assessments, culminating in
'
'
comprehensive threat and risk
assessment reports
to be produced jointly by the Commission and High Repre-
sentative in 2015. The strategy promises more funding for adaptation under the
EU
'
20 budget, albeit without specifying amounts.
29
In 2011 4.4 per cent of France
'
s new 2014
-
'
s defence budget was spent on the category
'
. The Dutch have invested several hun-
dred million euros in strengthening coastal defences. In 2012, 2.2 per cent of
Denmark
Environment and future defence policy
'
s defence budget was allocated to Home Guard Command and another
2 per cent to the Emergency Management Agency. While Sweden
'
s defence policy
does not include any particular reference to defence strategies adopted for climate
change challenges, a clear focus has been on preparing to deal with
'
oods.
30
The
most notable feature of military operations may not be a renewed commitment to
the
agenda but rather a more direct defence of key energy
supply lines within Europe. It is often pointed out that the infrastructures necessary
to bring renewable energy imports into Europe are likely to be just as, if not more,
vulnerable than oil and gas pipelines. Similarly, the UK has bases on low-lying coral
atolls in the Indian Ocean; the loss of Diego Garcia to rising sea levels would weaken
British in
agging
'
fragile state
'
uence with the US, to whom the base there is leased.
The UK government has advanced a plethora of defensive adaptation measures,
introducing a
range of policy initiatives,
including Climate Change Risk
