Climate Change Task Force

The Security and Sustainability Program of Global Green USA today released a preliminary analysis of the impact of the U.S. Department of Defense on climate change. Entitled “Department of Defense Sustainability,” the study illustrates how very important energy has become as a determinant of national and international security, and also how large an environmental impact the U.S. military has with its widespread use of fossil fuels.

Dr. Paul Walker, Director of the Security and Sustainability Program, stated: “As thousands of experts, heads of state, and environmentalists meet in Copenhagen this month to address global warming, it is important to remember that large, capital-intensive industries such as the world’s militaries must bear major responsibility for production of carbon emissions and climate change. While the U.S. military has made progress in recent years in energy efficiency, it is incumbent on all the military services to take more aggressive steps to demonstrate and deploy sustainable, non-polluting, and more secure energy technologies in the immediate future.”

The primary author of the study, Schuyler Null, summarized the following points:

• The United States consumes more petroleum, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and renewable energy every year than any other country on Earth, and the U.S. Department of Defense is the nation’s single largest energy user.

• The Department of Defense spends some $20 billion annually in energy costs; three-quarters of this is for tactical fuels, and one quarter for military facilities.

• The Department of Defense accounts for more energy consumption than 17 different states and the District of Columbia, equivalent to the fuel consumption of 16.4 million extra cars on the road every year

• If the Department of Defense were a country, it would rank 54th overall in global energy consumption, and 47th in greenhouse gas emissions, outpacing developed countries such as Portugal, Israel, and Denmark

• The Department of Defense is in a unique position to have a great impact on environmental sustainability through economies of scale; just a 1% decrease in consumption could save over $6 billion and keep nearly 6,500 soldiers off convoy duty and out of harm’s way.

• While the Department of Defense has become a major purchaser of renewable energy, it has so far avoided developing large-scale renewable energy projects of its own; this ignores a key vulnerability recognized by the Defense Science Board and demonstrates a lack of commitment to sustainability as an operable objective.

• Recent congressional legislation has aimed at reducing the carbon footprint for government agencies by creating targets for renewable energy use, consumption reduction, and increased efficiency, but the military has been largely exempt from these mandates. The U.S. Department of Defense should recognize that becoming more sustainable is an opportunity, rather than a burden, and thereby further address the ongoing serious military, economic, and environmental reasons for doing so.

Find the full report under: http://globalgreen.org/publications/wmd/