ADM sat down with Lieutenant General (ret’d) Richard Nugee, a senior associate for Arican Advisory Capital and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s Non-Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability, ahead of his trip to Australia in October.
As lead author of the MOD’s Climate Change and Sustainability Approach report – which addressed the changes that will need to occur in the MOD to be able to operate in a climate-changed world – Nugee is an authority on the implications of a warming planet on defence and national security, and the necessity for armed forces to adapt.
“What climate change is doing is affecting the natural resources of the world, it is making some parts of the world hotter, it is making some parts of the world more difficult to live in.
“By the end of the century some are saying that there could be a billion climate refugees in the world, and a large number of those would go to western hemisphere countries – that is something that we need to be alive to.”
There are more direct effects, too, to defence, and the ways militaries will be forced to operate.
“With the environment changing, it offers opportunities, but it also makes some things more difficult. Say, fighting in 40-45 degrees is unpleasant – it has a material effect on you, and you get heat exhaustion if you don’t take care. That’s just one side of it.
“There is another side of it, which is on our equipment. Warships require cold water to cool the engines, for example, and if the surface sea temperature gets to the level which scientists anticipate – which in the Gulf could be up to 38-40 degrees in the next 15-20 years – our ships won’t be able to operate.
“So, we need to think through what the implications are of the changing environment in the way we build our ships and the way we operate our ships, as just one example.”
The defence industry in the UK has been at the forefront of embracing new technologies that have come about to curb carbon emissions – importantly, because it is in their interest to do so.
“There’s a whole raft of new technologies available to us which industry are really keen to support, because actually, you can get better capability out of different technologies at the same cost. Reducing our emissions is one part of it, but actually the focus is trying to improve the efficiency of whatever industry is doing.”
This is a point that Nugee stresses with great emphasis: that addressing climate change will actually improve military effectiveness, rather than reduce it.
“It’s not an either-or between sustainability and capability. Far from it. There’s always the challenge of people who see this as some sort of green tax, if you like, and they’re not prepared to sacrifice anything for capability. I fundamentally disagree with the idea that it is a choice between either green or capable.
“This is about improving capability. This is about using new, better technology. What we want to do is make our defence forces the most effective force we possibly can by embracing new technologies, and by cutting costs.”
For example, there are opportunities for electric drives and renewable sources of energy to propel vehicles, whether they’re ships, land vehicles, or aircraft, which will make for far greater resilience and self-sufficiency.
“I’m not talking about huge great hydrogen tanks on armoured vehicles. What I am talking about though, is, for example, using electric drives on tanks that give far better performance. It means the tanks go further because you’re using a combination of an internal combustion engine, and a battery, and electric drives. That sort of things makes a tank a better tank.
“Using different fuels that are additives to traditional fuel methods that can produce anywhere between six or ten per cent better life of the engine, less maintenance, and the fuel goes further.
“Not everything is going to work for the military – you’re not going to put solar panels on an F-35. But actually, we can improve the efficiency of those aircraft, or improve their availability, because there’s less maintenance, because the fuel they’re using is less damaging to the aircraft. That must be a good thing. And if combatting climate change and reducing emissions is one justification for it, that’s fine, but actually the real justification for the military is to try to improve capability.”
There is also a financial argument that needs to be made, Nugee says, to get defence officials on board the transition to greener technologies. This argument can be difficult to make if it means more capital being spent up-front than they might do on traditional fuels and materials, but generally there will be costs saved over the whole life of a piece of equipment.
“Kevlar, used in body armour, for example, has a shelf-life, so we have to replace it all the time. It’s very expensive. But if you can recycle it, if you can bring it back up to the level that it needs to be at rather than throwing it away or burning it, then surely that makes economic sense.
“Yes, you’re also saving the planet to a certain extent, but that’s not going to win the argument. What’s going to win the argument is actually the financial benefit.
Australian and UK have historically collaborated little when it comes to preparing a response to combatting climate change. This is something that Nugee hopes will soon change.
“Because we’re such close allies, there is great opportunity to share best practice and to share our information. We’re at the beginning of a journey with Australia on this subject – obviously we’ve been working with Australia for a very long time – but we’re at the beginning of a journey of trying to work out how we can work together, develop technologies together in this space in order to be able to enhance our capability.”
It may take time before Defence forces are substantially taking advantage of some of these technologies, but the important thing is to start somewhere, Nugee concludes.
“Lots of people have talked about climate change for a very long time and done nothing. I use a terrible cliché which is that if you’re not on the field you can’t score a goal. And what I mean by that is that we need to get started with what we’re doing, rather than wait for everything to be perfect – that requires a degree of risk taking.
“But if we don’t start, we’ll never understand what the opportunities are. Because this is such a fast-moving technological environment, we will be permanently on the sidelines, because we’ll be waiting for it to be that little bit better. And I don’t think we can afford to do that.”