DOD reviewing installations for climate hazards

The Defense Department will spend the next two years reviewing all major military installations in the United States and abroad regarding potential exposure to climate hazards.

The review will be conducted with DOD’s new Climate Assessment Tool.

“The DCAT helps to identify the climate hazards to which DOD installations are most exposed, a critical first step in addressing the potential physical harm, security impacts, and degradation in readiness resulting from global climate change,” according to the Pentagon. “The tool provides climate hazard exposure data for an almost 1,400 DOD sites across the world.”

The Biden administration has already announced it will seek to invest in "climate resilience and energy efficiency" at military installations when it submits the fiscal year 2022 defense budget.

"It is vital to national security that U.S. military installations, and the mission-critical capabilities these installations support, are resilient to climate-induced extreme weather," the White House Office of Management and Budget said during the release of the administration’s FY-22 budget blueprint.

"The discretionary request supports efforts to plan for and mitigate impacts of climate change and improve the resilience of DOD facilities and operations,” OMB continued. “The discretionary request also invests in power and energy research and development in order to improve installation and platform energy performance and optimize military capability."