Renewable energy investment should come from defence budgets, say retired military leaders | Renewable energy

Investments in renewable energy should be counted as defense spending, a group of retired senior military officials says, because the climate crisis poses a threat to national security.

They called for increased spending on low-carbon energy to make the UK and other European countries more resilient to threats from Russia and other potential aggressors.

NATO members have committed to spending 3.5% of their GDP on their armed forces, weapons and other “essential” defense spending, as well as an additional 1.5% for “critical infrastructure”, such as civil preparedness.

Low-carbon energy should be included in the 1.5% pledge, the group of military experts argued in a letter to European government leaders seen by the Guardian.

“We must end our dependence on foreign oil and gas,” they write. “Dependence on fossil fuels makes our countries less secure. It exposes us to huge price increases in times of conflict – as we saw when Russia invaded Ukraine.”

They added: “To help unlock the investments needed to achieve energy sovereignty and ensure we stop handing billions of dollars a year to the Kremlin, we urge you to push for spending on renewable and low-carbon energy to be counted toward NATO’s 1.5% target.” »

Retired Lt. Gen. Richard Nugee, one of the letter’s signatories, told the Guardian that investing in renewable energy was safer than chasing more gas supplies, as some have advocated, because wind turbines, solar panels and other forms of renewable energy are more dispersed and therefore less vulnerable to attack.

“To have a strong military deterrent, we need a resilient homeland,” he said. “If we want to build a resilient country, low-carbon energy is a very important element. »

Vice Admiral Ben Bekkering, a former senior officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy and currently a partner in the International Military Council on Climate and Security, said governments need to take a broader view of threats. “We need to find ways to look at security from a broader perspective than just the military,” he said. “By finding ways to increase our military, economic and ecological sustainability, we have a chance [against aggression].”

The other signatories are: Tom Middendorp, former chief of defense of the Netherlands; Air Marshal Sir Graham Stacey, former Chief of Staff of NATO Allied Command Transformation; R Adm Neil Morisetti, former senior Royal Navy officer and now professor of climate and resource security at University College London; retired Brigadier John Deverell, former British director of defense diplomacy; and retired Lieutenant General Richard Wardlaw, chairman of the Center for Economic Security and former head of defense logistics at UK Strategic Command.

Senior military leaders are increasingly aware of the potential impacts of the climate crisis, but it is unclear whether government leaders are prioritizing the issue. Downing Street earlier this month suppressed publication of a major Joint Intelligence Committee report which warned the UK would be in danger if large overseas ecosystems, such as the Amazon, were to collapse.

Many countries are reducing their foreign aid spending, including helping poorer countries hit by the climate crisis, while increasing their defense budgets. But several senior experts said governments should consider investing more money in climate finance abroad, in their own interest, and that they should fund this from their national security budgets.

Gareth Redmond-King, international program director at the think tank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “Clean energy is the path to net zero – the only solution we have to stop climate change and avoid ever-worsening impacts. And clean energy offers greater national security, if we are to end our dependence on authoritarian states that control much of the fossil fuels in the world. the world, at least one of whose wars has driven up domestic energy prices in recent years.”

A UK government spokesperson said: “We have made a historic commitment to spend 5% of our GDP on national security. This includes 3.5% spending on our military and 1.5% to build our country’s resilience to threats. By delivering on our clean energy superpower mission, we are taking the UK off the roller coaster of fossil fuel prices and giving it access to clean, energy-efficient energy. locally, protecting consumers, creating jobs and fighting the climate crisis.”