Bills
| 3.23.22

Should the Executive Branch Develop a National Security Strategy for Climate Change? (H.R. 1201)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 1201?

(Updated November 19, 2021)

This bill — the Climate Change National Security Strategy Act of 2019 — would restore the core directives on national security and climate change that were included in a September 2016 memorandum from the Obama administration, which President Trump rescinded in March 2017.

The Obama memorandum in question, “Climate Change and National Security,” directed federal departments and agencies to ensure that climate change-related impacts are fully considered in the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans. The memorandum also assembled a Climate and National Security Working Group, to be chaired by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Assistance to the President for Science and Technology, and tasked it with: 1) coordinating the development of a strategic approach to identify, assess, and share information about current and projected climate-related impacts on national security interests and 2) informing the development of national security doctrine, policies, and plans. Finally, the Obama memorandum required each federal agency to develop an implementation plan to support a policy of considering climate change in their work.

The interagency Climate and National Security Working Group would include designees from the following federal departments: State, Treasury, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Energy, Homeland Security. It’d also include designees from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Office of the Director of National Intelligence, U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Council on Environmental Quality, and Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Argument in favor

Climate change is a tremendously important issue, and it’s important for all parts of the federal government to keep it in mind as develop national security doctrine, policies, and plans. By establishing an interagency working group on this topic, this bill ensures that federal government agencies will coordinate their efforts.

Argument opposed

President Trump’s decision to rescind President Obama’s memorandum on climate change was a reasonable one. It’s not necessary to specifically direct federal agencies to take climate change into consideration as they develop national security doctrine, policies, and plans, because taking the global context — including the climate — into consideration in these decisions is already a given.

Impact

Climate change; national security; federal agencies; State Dept; Treasury Dept; Justice Dept; Dept. of Interior; USDA; Commerce Dept; HHS; DOT; DOE; Dept. of Homeland Security; USAID; EPA; NASA; Office of the Director of National Intelligence; U.S. Mission to the United Nations; OMB; Council on Environmental Quality; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Cost of H.R. 1201

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) reintroduced this bill from the 115th Congress to ensure that the federal government appropriately considers climate change in the development of national security strategies and policies. When he originally introduced this bill in response to President Trump abandoning the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, Rep. Lynch argued that it was needed to create a coordinated effort to fight climate change:

“From outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and current Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, national security officials have widely recognized the risk climate change poses to human security, both in the United States and abroad. A comprehensive, coordinated strategy among stakeholders at all levels is critical if the United States is serious about strengthening our national security and mitigating risks posed by the impacts of climate change. Congress must swiftly take action to clearly demonstrate that President Trump’s recent abdication of leadership is unacceptable and risks irreparable damage to future generations [This bill] calls on the Federal Government to step up and lead the fight against the greatest global threat facing the earth. Without action, the effects of global climate change will exacerbate geopolitical instability and threaten to displace millions of people across the world.”

In the 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment, then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper wrote that climate change “will probably exacerbate — and potentially spark” a range of conflicts:

“Extreme weather, climate change, environmental degradation, related rising demand for food and water, poor policy responses, and inadequate critical infrastructure will probably exacerbate—and potentially spark—political instability, adverse health conditions, and humanitarian crises in 2016. Several of these developments, especially those in the Middle East, suggest that environmental degradation might become a more common source for interstate tensions.”

This bill has 42 Democratic cosponsors in the current session of Congress. Last Congress, Rep. Lynch introduced this bill with the support of 70 Democratic cosponsors, and it didn’t receive a committee vote. The League of Conservation Voters and Ecological Society of America (ESA) support this bill.


Of Note: President Trump announced his plans to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord on June 1, 2017. Prior to that, he’d signed an executive order that rescinded a September 2016 directive from President Obama that had set forth a commitment to ensuring that the federal government identifies and considers climate changes’ wide-ranging impact in the development of relevant national security doctrines, policies, and plans. The Obama directive had been the first time that U.S. security agencies were required to consider climate change in the formulation of national security doctrine.

Two consecutive Worldwide Threat Assessments under two different Directors of National Intelligence — the first in 2016, issued by James Clapper in the Obama administration, and the second in 2017, issued by Dan Coats in the Trump administration — have called climate change a global security threat that could cause global political instability, adverse health conditions, humanitarian crises, political unrest, and more.


Media:

Summary by Lorelei Yang

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / TheCrimsonMonkey)