ICYMI: Climate Migration Council’s Erin Sikorsky Testifies before US Senate & UK Parliament
This week, Climate Migration Council founding member Erin Sikorsky appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget and the UK Parliament Environmental Audit Committee to discuss the connections between the climate crisis and national security.
Sikorsky's testimony before Parliament highlighted security risks stemming from climate migration patterns and noted that the migrants themselves are not the risk. These risks include the strain on governments and resources within developing countries as people move from rural to urban areas, destabilizing political responses to migrants, and the weaponization of migration by political actors or countries.
In her testimony before the U.S. Senate, Sikorsky and other experts discussed climate effects on military infrastructure and avenues for addressing this issue in light of the growing national debt. Sikorsky also stressed the impact of climate-related events on military response and activity.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Climate Migration Council, please reach out to press@climatemigrationcouncil.org, or visit ClimateMigrationCouncil.org.
In case you missed it…
The Guardian
UK is failing to put climate crisis at centre of national security measures, MPs told
By Fiona Harvey
The US, Germany and other countries are putting the climate crisis at the heart of their national security plans but the UK is failing to do likewise, experts have told the government.
Extreme weather and heat are killing increasing numbers of people, damaging economies and forcing millions around the world to flee their homes, adding to an already unstable geopolitical situation, MPs were told on Tuesday at a select committee hearing.
The climate crisis has become a “threat multiplier” that can add to instability and the risk of unrest in many countries and is therefore an international security issue, parliament’s environmental audit committee was told. The increasing dangers of floods, droughts and other damage to vital infrastructure also makes the climate crisis a national security problem within the UK.
But while the US has taken a “whole government” approach to the crisis, ordering the security services to focus on climate risks in their assessments, the UK has lagged behind, according to experts giving evidence.
Erin Sikorsky, the director of the Center for Climate and Security in the US, said: “The US government has put climate change and national security at the front of its foreign security policy agenda under [president Joe] Biden. The Department of Homeland Security has been involved.”
Even though most of the Republican party leadership and the former president Donald Trump have been vehemently opposed to action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, when it comes to national security there has been cooperation on the climate. “It has really been a bipartisan issue for over a decade,” Sikorsky said.
Spectrum Local News
Hearing held on Capitol Hill examines climate change and its impacts on national security
By Corina Cappabianca
WASHINGTON — On Capitol Hill, lawmakers examined climate change and its impacts on national security at a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday.
What You Need To Know
The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing Wednesday titled "Budgeting for the Storm: Climate Change and the Costs to National Security"
Democrats on the Committee said climate-related severe weather events are causing billions of dollars in national security costs
According to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Wednesday marked the 17th Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on climate change this Congress
The Democratic Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, said severe weather events fueled by climate change are becoming more and more of a disruptive and costly strain on national security.
“In a congressional hearing this month, the Air Force testified that rebuilding U.S. facilities in Guam damaged by Typhoon Mawar will cost $10 billion alone," Whitehouse said. "That’s twice what the Department of Defense spent rebuilding Tyndall and Offutt Air Force bases in Florida and Nebraska. Both also devastated by climate change related weather events."
In addition to growing costs, Erin Sikorsky, the director of The Center for Climate and Security, and The International Military Council On Climate and Security, said climate related events are also impacting military response.
“In the past 22 months The Center for Climate and Security’s Military Responses to Climate Hazards Tracker ... has identified nearly 300 deployments by militaries in 74 countries to fight fires, rescue citizens from floods, deliver water or participate in other hazard related activities," Sikorsky said. "Here in the U.S., troops have deployed 70 times since June 2022, and of course, the U.S. military has also responded globally during that time period,”
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