CNN
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As the Pentagon and Elon Musk’s government efficiency is focusing on the Pentagon’s climate-related programme, authorities and experts have warned that cutting them could put US military and military operations in near and long term risk.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses and other senior Pentagon officials point to the climate program as a prime example of wasted spending in the military. Heggs told German reporters in February that the pentagon was “not a climate change business.”
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Sales also revealed in a statement last month that funding would be cut, saying the Pentagon “stop unnecessary spending that will bring our troops back to previous administrations, including so-called ‘climate change’ and other awakening programs.”
However, some officials and experts argue that such a way of thinking is shortsighted.
“I don’t think they’re looking at the operational impact they’re talking about, as they’re just saying,’ said one U.S. official, adding that the cuts will bring “a problem that’s ready.”
Pentagon news director John Uriot said in response to multiple questions from CNN about military preparations related to reducing funding for climate programs and research and other efforts, the Department of Defense has “worked closely with Doge to identify the efficiency and savings across the sector on behalf of taxpayers, reviving the military and working at the heart of it.”
“The climate frenzy and other awakened chimera on the left are not part of its core mission,” Uriot said.
Dr. Rabbi Chaudhary, former assistant secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Facilities and Environment, told CNN that the climate programme is not important to give the US military advantage to enemies like China, and also helps keep service members and their families safe.
“Operations at this point put our preparations and the lives of our armies and their families at greater risk,” he said.
In fact, officials who spoke to CNN pointed to many programs within the Department of Defense that are technically tagged as climate-related but could have actual operational impacts on the military.
For example, making military facilities more resilient due to extreme weather events can save five billion people in the long run as wildfires and hurricanes become more common and intense. In 2019, the Air Force called for $5 billion to rebuild two major bases after hurricanes and floods caused serious damage.
Extreme weather also affects the ability of service members to train. A Senate aide, familiar with discussions about the Pentagon’s climate program, told CNN there is an increase in “black flag” training days.
Chaudhary pointed to many other issues caused by climate change. Wildfires are slowing down the rhythm of launch at US space power bases. Melting of Alaskan permafrost affecting US runways in the Arctic. Building natural and artificial coral reefs around the United States to protect the base from storm surges. Energy efficiency efforts by the Air Force reduce drag on US aircraft and save millions of fuel.
Rogers, a former senior climate advisor to the Secretary of the Army, now a senior fellow at the New American Security Center, warned that rhetoric from senior officials who lightly parole climate-related efforts, “has a paralyzing effect on important modernization efforts” related to climate.
Apart from protecting US military facilities and personnel, sources warned that ignoring climate issues could undermine US national security interests.
Both Chaudhary and Senate aides pointed to China’s willingness to fill the gaps left by the US, especially in Pacific Island countries where climate change often considers one of the most pressing threats facing their presence. A former former Pentagon official told CNN that climate change is a top priority for many Pacific Islands. Many of them rely on facilities such as airplane runways and ports in conflict scenarios with China. And if the US doesn’t want to support those countries with climate resilience, China will be happy to intervene, a former senior official warned.
Rogers said concerns exist not only in the Pacific Ocean, but also in the horns of Africa, Central and South America.
“If you say, ‘Hey, we’re not interested in climate change,’ then what you want to call will slip into DMs (partners and allies) to fund our disadvantages,” the Senate aide said.
And it’s not just the efforts put in danger and directly carried out by the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense leadership also narrows its focus on funding academic research related to climate change and international security issues.
In a video posted on X last week, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell appointed a programme that Musk’s Doge identified as wasted spending in Degense’s departure.
“What do you think: $1.6 million to the University of Florida is studying the social and institutional vulnerability of the vulnerability to climate risks in the African Sahel,” Parnell said in the video. “You look at people. These are not core functions of our military. This is not what we do, it’s a distraction from our core mission.”
The project in question – more precisely called the social and institutional determinants of vulnerability and resilience to climate dangers in the African Sahel – studies climate change. But it focuses specifically on how the people of the Sahel in Africa can respond, and the risks that it could pose not only to their population, but also to the security of the nations around them.
“Our project was trying to understand how people were reacting. If people are starving, that’s really bad. Clearly… but if you’re a US government and you’re thinking in a completely narrow, self-interested language, it’s also bad that you’re joining radical groups because they’re desperate, focusing on other areas, putting pressure on refugee camps, borders and governments.”
“In advance, there was nothing about it,” Villaron said. “So someone would have reached out and told everyone what you’re doing and why this is going to be doing it.”
Villaron added that despite Parnell’s insinuation that the Pentagon is saving $1.6 million by cutting the program, the majority of the grants have already been spent over the past few years as he and his team have done research, including Senegal, Niger, Chad and Mauritania, interviews and research.
“In our case, they saved under $200,000,” he said.
The funding was provided under the Minerva Research Initiative, a Department of Defense program launched in 2008, and provided academic grants to provide further social science research on topics “strategically important to US national security policy.” As of Friday, the Minerva Research Initiative website was offline.
Villalón told CNN last week that several other climate-related research initiatives had cut funding. In a Pentagon’s news release Friday afternoon, the Pentagon said it was “destroying its social science research portfolio,” including research focusing on “global transition patterns, impacts on climate change and social trends.” The release said the Department of Defense expects “to save more than $30 million in the first year through the cancellation of 91 research.”
Ultimately, the research aims to help the Pentagon preempt major events that could have serious security side effects, Villaron said.
“We live in a very interrelated world, and like everyone else, the US is interested in preventing areas of critical instability and suffering that affect other parts of the world. …What we’re trying to do is understand the situation in these places on the premise that what we don’t know about will come back and bite us,” he said.
“We have learned that we cannot get from understanding other parts of the world, whether it’s in Central America, Afghanistan or elsewhere,” he added. “Ignorance is not the solution.”
