Transcripts For CSPAN2 Discussion Focuses On National Securi

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is carol warner, and the director of the environmental and energy study institute. Im delighted to welcome you to the briefing this afternoon on the National Security implications of Climate Change. Were honored for this breaking to happen at this very timely. In time as well as a look at these important issues. And i want to express my gratitude and enthusiasm for the partnership that we have in terms of bringing this briefing through the partnership with the Henry M Jackson foundation as well as the center for climate and security. And i wanted to be sure and mention that were joined by some members from the henry m. Jackson foundation today, including john handelman, who is the president of the Jackson Foundation board, as well as laura who is the foundations executive director. So thank you very, very much for your support, for your long understanding and visionary approach to this important issue and in carrying out the legacy of senator jackson who set up, for whom the foundation was set up to continue his unfinished work in the areas in which he for so long played a very key leadership role while he was here in the congress and especially in the senate where he also chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, but when he took such an important leadership role with regard to International Affairs education, human rights, environment and Natural Resources management, and very important to the whole role of public service. So we are very, very grateful to the Jackson Foundation, also very, very grateful to the center for climate and security with whom we are also partnering with regard to this briefing. We are going to be hearing from a number of people who have a long history and who have given much, much thought to this important issue of climate, what does this really me for National Security, what are the angles that need to be thought about. And to first start off this breaking appointed first introduce colonel tom watson who is the director of Government Affairs for the center for climate and security. [applause] carol, thank you very much. The center for climate and security is delighted to cosponsor this event today with the esi and thanks to our esi partners for all your hard work to put this together. The center for climate and security would also like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to join us today for the National Security implications of Climate Change. A briefing to discuss the role of Climate Change is a threat multiplier in the geopolitical landscape, and the implications that assess for National Security. This briefing will explore the risk management, planning considerations facing the department of defense as it seeks to maintain force readiness and bolster infrastructure resilience. We think yo youll find todays panel both timely and informative on this important issue. The center for climate and security is a nonpartisan security and Foreign Policy institute with a distinguished Advisory Board of nationally recognized military, security, and Foreign Policy experts. Some of whom are here today as part of our panel. The center for climate and security envisions a climate resilient secrete landscape character further this this goal the center for climate and security facilitates policy Development Processes and dialogs like todays panel as well as providing analysis, conducting research and acting as a resource hub in the climate and security field. It is now my pleasure introduce your moderator for todays event, the honorable john conger. He is a member of the senate for climate and security advisories board. In addition is an independent consultant and president of the condor strategy and Solutions Llc and a nonresident Senior Advisor at the center for strategy and international studies. He served as the Principal Deputy undersecretary of defense comptroller where he provided advice to the secretary of defense on budgetary and financial matters. He has also overseen Energy Installation and departmental policy throughout dod as the assistant secretary for defense for energy, installation and environment. He served as acting deputy undersecretary of defense for installations in environment as well as the assistant deputy undersecretary for installations in environment. Mr. Conger has also served as a staff member in congress including a professional staff of the House International relations committee. Prior to that he was employed in the private sector as an Aerospace Engineer and defense analysts supporting the office of secretary of defense. He has multiple degrees from mit and a masters from George Washington university. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce your moderator for today, mr. John conger. The podium is yours. [applause] how a real doing today good . A little warm. We will keep the door open so that the air flow is okay, but were going to get back grandly so thats the tradeoff you are all going to have. So thank you for being here background noise. I hope will be a pretty enlightening discussion. You heard a couple times the reference to how time is was. I want to thank President Trump for making his last week on this topic. We did not plan that in advance. But nonetheless, as we go forward with the change in administration, from president obama to President Trump, the apparent change of opinion on Climate Change, we cant help but wonder whether this topic is to want the dod is is going to care about. Whether this is all just politics at the beginning of whether theres really a core National Security issue that drives dod interest in the impacts of Climate Change. Unconjugated preliminary and to do that by quoting secretary mattis, President Trumps secretary of defense. His quote was i agree that the effects of a changing climate such as increased maritime access to the arctic, rising sea levels, among others in fact, our security situation. I will ensure that the department continues to be prepared to conduct operations today and in the future, and that were prepared to address the effects of changing climate on our threat assessments resources and readiness. So thats the bottom line. That dod will adapt to changes in the climate and positions of the best to ensure they can get its mission and defend the country. The dod knows what youre doing and it was measured in responding to this risk but theres a lot you can do to mitigate risk once you acknowledge the wrist existed to do with a group of experts. Each of whom is a member of the board of advisors to the sender of climate and security, and each are uniquely qualified to address these points. They will talk about why dod still cares about Climate Change, how it affects the dod mission and the ability to carry out Mission Today and in the future. Im going to introduce everybody and call on each one of them to make some open comments and they moved to some questions and answers. Im going to ask that the panelists during their opening common stock are a facet of the problem that they wish, but to include in the thoughts one started question to blend in with her intro, any absence of politics, how would dod approach this issue . Setting aside the focus on climate by president obama and the resistance to focus on what President Trump, what would dod due . So thats sort of an entrylevel thought. Im going to go during introduce everybody all at once and then pass it to them to make their comments. Immediately to my left is sherri goodman, a number of our Advisory Board and a senior fellow with the wilson center. Prior to this role she was ceo and president of the Ocean Leadership consortium and Senior Vice President and general counsel and corporate secretary of the center for naval analyses. Before that indicate gone she was deputy under secretary of defense for Environmental Security and i will say that few people have done more at the nexus of climate and security, particularly or shepherding of the civil souza reports issued by sine started with the National Security and the threat of Climate Change report in 2007. To her left general ron keys is a member of the center and climate on climate and security Advisory Board and chairman of the cna military Advisory Board. So thats the board to put up the side edges from your gross really he coauthored a report on Sea Level Rise use military mission and issued by the seven climate and security and there should be copies in the front table. General keys is a retired 4star general from the air force. He retired in november 27 2007 after more than 40 years. He was a command pipe with more than 4000 flight hours and Fighter Aircraft including more than 300 hours of combat time. Gse climate challenges as an operator around the world, and as commander confronting the impact of climate on operational readiness at Langley Air Force base, now join force base your helped to his left doctor Gerald Galloway is a member of a Member Senate Armed Security Advisory Board and a coauthor of the aforementioned study on sealevel rise. Hes professor jimmy at university of maryland, focus on Water Resources and Disaster Management and is also a fellow at the texas a m Hagler Institute for advanced studies working on urban fighting in the United States. Urban flooding. He served eight additional years in the federal government. Professor gallo is a former dean of the faculty and academic programs at the Industrial College of the armed forces and former dean of Academic Board coming Us Military Academy at west point where he was professor of geography in the first hit of the department of geography and environmental engineering. And last but not least, where admiral and felt as a member of the centers Advisory Board. Praise is a shutter 31 year career in the u. S. Navy as a Surface Warfare officer. She commanded destroyer squadron 28 and strike a group and she was a member of the navies Climate Change and Energy Task Force advertisement featured Infrastructure Working Group for the hampton road sealevel rise prepared everything intergovernmental pilot planning project. So thanks to each of you for being here and i will turn it over to sherri for opening comments. Well, thank you [inaudible] great to deal with all of you today. Thank you to the Jackson Foundation, to the rockefeller foundation, to css and ees eye for organizing this. Many of you looked around for carol can member when we could hardly fill a room on this subject, let alone standing room only. So 30 years ago, 30 years ago i was the youngest and only female staff member on the Senate Armed Services committee, at the time when senator jackson still served in the senate. I worked for senator nunn who are just become the Armed Services committee. Senator warner, john warner of virginia was the ranking republican. And there were many days and many times when there was absolutely no difference between democrats and republicans on the issues that we worked. And so i, speak to you about the subject from a long bipartisan tradition that has been the hallmark of National Security policymaking and practice in this country. That has been around for decades, and which i think is incredibly important to the subject, and too many others in National Security that we face today. Because we are living in a time thats highly polarized, but 30 years ago what was more common was that on Armed Service committee, they could barely fill the work and fiber. That was not in my portfolio at all. As most of my colleagues who are old enough like me, i was more like the age of many of in the audience then. And at that time we were working on things like Nuclear Weapons and arms control and military readiness and troop readiness, all these issues are still very important, but during that early, and early post cold war. In this cold war. , we begin to understand the practices of the Industrial Age data led to environmental challenges. And so the Armed Services committees, both sides of the aisle, republicans and democrats, created within the Defense Department something that still and doors to today called the Strategic Environment Research and development program, which took research and assigns capably prolific this think this is still important, sort of underlying factor here that science, research, Technology Development innovation are a core component of everything that we do as americans but everything that occurs in National Security and that undergirds our understanding of what our threats are. Because in the first instance the National Security, you start from what are your threats . In the nuclear age we understood the nuclear threat. We spent billions of dollars of americas gdp to defend and deter what we consider to be the highest consequence, but low probability threat of a bolt out of the blue strike from the soviet union. Now in the climate age we have in Climate Change arguably an equally high, potential high consequence and higher probability threat. So that is our we think of it in terms of risk. What are the risks . And did we plan and program and budget accordingly to reduce those risks to our forces, to reduce the risks in operating around the world. So now when we look around the world today we see that there are many threats, of course, terrorism bright on our doorstep almost every day. Russia, rising china, and among those threats is Climate Change. The environmental considerations within the fence have always been, in my view, really a bipartisan consideration dating back 30 years ago from what i mentioned starting with considerations of how to address it by mental problems during the cold war and only post cold war. And there are number of programs which john and generals and admirals here were responsible for administering during the times in dod, to clean up military bases or comply with environmental laws. And as new challenges emerge we approach each one in its own right. And then the last two decades its become very clear that Climate Change is one of the significant threats to americas National Security. And thats why ten years ago this year when i was at cna reform the military Advisory Board that general keys now chairs, that general galloway has served on, that admiral phillips is associated with and many other leading generals and admirals in the Armed Services have been associated with peer to understand what are the National Security implications of Climate Change, and with characterized that as a threat multiplier. Threat multiplier for instability in fragile regions of the world. And we see it. We see how the geostrategic posture is affected by Climate Change. Just take the arctic. We have a whole new ocean thats been created and opened up within the last decade as the result of the melting, rapid melting of sea ice i in the arctic. And now we have two begin to have more capability to operate in the arctic in ways that we did not need to do quarter century ago. We see a potential rush for resources