NATO Secretary General: “NATO must combat climate change”

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Breitbart / James Delingpole; According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, “NATO must help to curb climate change for our security today and for the security of future generations.”, so “NATO must do more to fully understand and integrate climate change into our all aspects of our work”.

NATO must combat climate change

Op-ed article by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

27 Sep. 2020

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I have been passionate about climate change all of my life. My first job in government was as Deputy Environment Minister, and I had the privilege of serving as UN Special Envoy on Climate Change. Now, as NATO Secretary General, it is my responsibility to address the threat climate change poses to our shared security. 

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. As the planet heats up, our weather becomes wilder, warmer, windier and wetter, putting communities under pressure as sources of food, fresh water and energy are threatened. 

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Climate change threatens our security. So NATO must do more to fully understand and integrate climate change into our all aspects of our work, from our military planning to how we exercise and train our armed forces.

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It is essential that we adapt to this new reality. That means better combat gear, vehicles and infrastructure. And it means explicitly including climate change in NATO’s work to improve the resilience of Allies and partners, something that we have been doing for decades in areas like infrastructure. 

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NATO and its member countries also have a responsibility to help reduce climate change by producing fewer emissions without compromising our core tasks.

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Climate change is making the world more dangerous. NATO’s task is to preserve peace and keep us safe. So to fulfil our main responsibility, NATO must help to curb climate change for our security today and for the security of future generations. 

Read more: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_178334.htm

Under “WHAT IS NATO?” on the NATO website, NATO provides the following description of their mission.

Security in our daily lives is key to our well-being. NATO’s purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.

POLITICAL – NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

MILITARY – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.

Read more: https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html

In my opinion, the radical climate change comments of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg really calls into question whether NATO is still genuinely focussed on their stated political and military objectives, and whether there is any point to ongoing US membership of NATO.

One of those democratic values NATO is supposed to be promoting is the right of member state voters to democratically elect a government which opposes radical climate action.

You cannot fill a leaky bucket. If NATO is frittering away all their attention and resources fighting climate hobgoblins and undermining member states which oppose radical climate action, instead of sticking to their stated political and military objectives of guaranteeing freedom and security, promoting democratic values and resolving disputes, then NATO is no longer fit for purpose.