Former Australian security officials have advised a review of the country’s defence strategy, noting that it must respond to the climate disaster with “wartime mobilisation.”
The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group said that the country’s defence and security strategy has to be fundamentally reframed away from geopolitical rivalry, adding that it must press for unprecedented global cooperation on the climate catastrophe.
The security leaders also insisted that despite the US and Australia’s pledge to push stronger global action to address the climate disaster, the problem is still seen as a secondary concern rather than a top-order threat.
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The group cautioned in a submission to the defence strategic review being done by former ADF head Angus Houston and former defence minister Stephen Smith, that the ADF must meet increasing demands to respond to disasters both domestically and in the region.
“Global inaction has resulted in climate change becoming an immediate existential threat to humanity and, together with nuclear war, is the greatest threat to the security of Australia and its people,” the submission showed”. “Addressing that threat requires an emergency response, akin to wartime mobilization,”.
According to the submission, the climate crisis can only be resolved by a collective decision to intensify climate action to an emergency level, making climate mitigation the top priority for politics and the environment in Australia and the rest of the world.
Story was adapted from The Guardian.
