Australian government fails to prepare for climate security risks: report

Canberra, May 2 The Australian government is failing to properly plan for the security risks posed by climate change, former military and intelligence leaders have warned.

In a report published on Thursday, the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) said the federal government has fundamentally failed to accept the scale and urgency of climate risk, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ASLCG was formed in 2021 by a group of former senior military and security officials, including former Australian Defense Force chief Chris Barrie, who said he was concerned the government was not addressing the security implications of climate change.

In Wednesday’s report, they said the 2024 National Defense Strategy, published in April, fails to recognize that the rapid acceleration of climate change requires a fundamental recalibration of security and defense thinking.

The report says the government’s commitment of up to 18 billion Australian dollars (11.7 billion U.S. dollars) to modernize military bases in northern Australia will place many critical bases in areas expected to become virtually unliveable as the global warming rises 2.7 degrees Celsius above the limit. pre-industrial levels.

“Once Northern Australia reaches a state of ‘near unlivable conditions’, the area is likely to be partially depopulated and the services and infrastructure on which civil society and the military depend – transport and logistics, utilities, health care, social and educational services for families – will be relegated,” the report said.

“Trainings and operations are already being canceled due to the extreme heat.”

In 2022, the federal government received a classified report from the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) on the threats climate change posed to Australian security.

The ASLCG called for the release of a declassified version of the report and the establishment of a Climate Threat Intelligence department within the ONI that would provide regular briefings to Parliament.

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