Climate change a ‘threat multiplier’ for Defence

March 25th, 2013

Peter Nolan

Updated

March 25, 2013 08:43:18

Photo:
The Army helps a family during last February’s flooding in Charleville in southern Queensland. (RAAF/AAP: LAC Benjamin Evans)

A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) says the military is not doing enough planning to cope with the problem of climate change.

The study, titled Heavy Weather, found climate change was not being considered by the Defence Department in its national and regional strategic scoping, despite the potential regional instability caused by rising sea levels, migration pressures, and the spread of infectious diseases.

ASPI deputy director Antony Bergin says the ADF has already been stretched by a spate of weather-related domestic disasters such as bushfires and floods, and should be factoring in how it will deal with simultaneous extreme weather events at home and in the region.

“The military are very used to responding to a whole range of factors that impact on military operations, whether it be population, whether it be technology, whether it be economics,” he said.

“This report argues that climate change is simply another factor.

“Every Christmas now we see the military deployed to floods and bushfires in Australia.

Defence personnel help with a flood clean-up

Photo:
The ADF helps load furniture during the 2011 floods in Brisbane. (ABC News: Tim Leslie)

“The ADF of course have been heavily involved in deploying to regional disasters, but one of the points that the report makes is that Defence will need to factor in concurrent disasters.

“While we’ve been pretty good at dealing with offshore disasters without anything happening on the home front, I think we’re now going to see the ADF really stretched in dealing with extreme weather events in the region and at home.”

The Government’s 2009 Defence white paper dismissed climate change as an issue that did not need to be addressed until after 2030, but this ASPI report argues that is no longer the case, and the new white paper to be delivered this year needs to embrace a new approach.

Mr Bergin describes climate change as a “threat multiplier”.

The report paints the Asia-Pacific region as the most disaster-prone region in the world, with many of those disasters likely to be aggravated by climate change.

It says climate change has the potential to generate and exacerbate destabilising conditions that could reshape the regional security environment.

Disease transmission, population displacement, and subsequent resource wars could lead to the further weakening of fragile states and place greater demand on the ADF’s involvement in regional stabilisation missions.

The report also argues for a permanent climate adviser to be appointed in the Defence department.

Dr Bergin believes the last few years of extreme weather events has concentrated the thinking on climate change in the military, and that many in Defence now believe the 2009 white paper position is unsustainable.

“There’s much greater recognition now in preparation of the new white paper than there was four years ago that climate change can’t be dismissed as tomorrow’s problem,” he said.

“We’re seeing the impact of climate change now and Defence are heavily involved in humanitarian work, and those operations will increase as a result of a changing climate.”