Review: The Army Climate Strategy and the Climate Security Plan for America

Mar 4, 2022 | Francesco Fmia and Caitlin Werrell
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The U.S. Army released its first climate strategy on February 8, the first Service within the Department of Defense (DoD) to do so. This post summarizes and comments directly on the strategy, following up with a discussion of where the strategy aligns with the Center for Climate and Security’s 2019 Climate and Security Plan for America (CSPA).

The ACS meets or exceeds the CSPA’s applicable recommendations for three of the four CSPA’s pillars, thus supporting DoD’s and the federal government’s efforts to address climate security. For Pillar III, the ACS and thus the Army should actively engage its allies and partners to pass along and receive from them information that collectively assists with decreasing their individual climate risk, while working to increase overall global climate security. 

The ACS’s implementation actions will be in the to-be-released Army Climate Action Plan. The scale and speed at which the Army implements the ACS is dependent on appropriations and priorities that Congress provides. Progress will be difficult to achieve this fiscal year to initiate actions under the ACS because of the current continuing resolution.