The Common Security and Defence Policy in case of climate-driven crises and natural disasters

While sustainability and warfare make an odd couple, security and defence policy really need to incorporate measures designed to combat climate change.

In most countries, the armed forces account for around 80% of all fossil fuels consumed by the public sector.

At the same time, European military forces often operate in regions that climate change has made more vulnerable.

In these regions, the local impact of the presence of armed forces also affects the environment, quite apart from the often destructive consequences of military operations.

The Greens believe that EuropeÂ’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) must include provisions on combating climate change. EU civilian and military operations have to be designed in a climate-sensitive way.

We want all EU players active in the field to mainstream climate change in their policies and activities.

One important aspect of this entails boosting energy efficiency, which would lessen the environmental footprint of operations and lower their impact on the local population.

We believe this could best be achieved by creating an EU Special Representative on Climate Security and establishing an EU Corps of Military Engineers.

The GreensÂ’ position emerged basically intact after its passage through Parliament.

Future EU civilian and military operations will be designed in a climate-sensitive way and climate issues will be mainstreamed in military and civilian activities.

This will entail tighter coordination of resource-intensive structures, such as engineering capacities for the construction of ad-hoc airports. A majority also shared our concerns about the efficient use of resources.

The Greens were unable to secure majority support for our demands for institutional solutions to climate change challenges in the military and civilian security sectors, such as the appointment of a special representative (EUSR).

The EPP, ECR and GUE all opposed such initiatives.