| By Laura Millan War and climate change are existential threats that need to be battled at the same time and often with the same tools, experts say. Their comments come as NATO members gather this week in The Hague to discuss boosting military budgets amid conflicts raging in Ukraine, Gaza and, most recently, Iran. The meeting is also happening against a backdrop of rising global temperatures, which have increased the threat of more intense and frequent natural disasters, such as wildfires and floods. Catastrophes across Europe have already become so overwhelming that governments have increasingly deployed their armies for relief efforts. Countries should identify the areas where climate and conflict overlap to use budgets more efficiently, said Julian Popov, a senior fellow at Brussels think tank Strategic Perspectives and Bulgaria’s former minister of the environment. “We can’t tackle these crises separately because the resources are insufficient,” he said. “We have to find ways to deal with them in a combined way.” NATO and armed forces across the world routinely recognize climate change as a security risk that will touch every aspect of defense over the long term. Water scarcity is contributing to instability in some regions, adding fuel to existing conflicts, according to the United Nations. The melting Arctic is unlocking new maritime routes, spurring a race to control the resources-rich region. Armies are vulnerable to climate change, too, with extreme weather events threatening strategic infrastructure and making military operations harder to plan.  Soldiers take part in Joint Viking training exercises near Bardufoss, Norway, on March 8, 2023. Photographer: Danielle Bochove/Bloomberg But increasingly the defense community is realizing that technologies designed to help decarbonize economies also make armies more resilient, efficient and, eventually, cheaper to run. Renewable-powered military bases are independent from the grid — and potential attacks to it. Recycled army gear lowers polluting waste, and reduces the armed forces’ dependency on lengthy supply chains and foreign providers. “It would be very wrong to say that we can’t deal with climate change now and that we should wait for the economy to strengthen and the war to be finished,” Popov said. “Exactly the same technologies are applicable to Europe’s priorities – defense, competitiveness and climate – the sooner we realize, the stronger we’ll be.” The EU and the UK have in recent months announced plans to boost military spending in support of Ukraine and amid new conflicts across the world. The EU’s ReArm Europe plan alone aims to mobilize up to €800 billion ($927 billion) in defense investment and turn the sector into a driver of growth for the region’s industry. At the same time, the US wants NATO members to boost military spending to 5% of their gross domestic product, above current spending of just over 2% on average, according to research by the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, DC. Under NATO rules, payments made by national governments to cover the needs of their own armed forces and allies’ are considered defense spending, a broad definition that some are trying to use in their favor. Spain, the only NATO member openly opposing the 5% spending request, announced in April that 17% of this year’s €23 billion ($26.2 billion) military spending would go toward natural disaster relief. The country is also calling for a renewed focus on the resilience of civilian infrastructure more widely. Read More: Spain Is Using Defense Budgets to Combat Climate Change Effects While Spain is the only NATO country that precisely outlines allocations for disaster relief at home in a defense budget, armies are intervening more and more in weather-related events often made worse by climate change. Europe’s most recent disasters — from floods in Spain to storms in Poland — have seen large military deployments. “The military are there when they’re not at war,” said Richard Nugee, a former British Army officer. “There’s logic in using the military and it is something that the military are getting better and better at because they’re doing it more.” NATO members can request help from allies when natural disasters strike, and the organization conducts periodic training. The next of such exercises will take place in Bulgaria next September and members will be presented with an initial scenario of a major earthquake. Further details will be made public shortly before the simulation exercise starts, but organizers have disclosed that participants will also be asked to deal with secondary events in the aftermath of an earthquake such as heavy rain warnings and flash floods hitting the region. Among the goals is strengthening cooperation between civilian and military actors when crises hit.  Medics from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina load a simulated casualty into an ambulance in Ohrid, North Macedonia during a consequence-management exercise North Macedonia in 2021. Source: NATO On paper, budgets stick to traditional defense spending like tanks, missiles or aircraft. But in reality, adaptation to climate change, mitigation of emissions and decarbonization of the military are there under different labels, said Manon Dufour, an executive director of E3G think tank in Brussels. “A lot of the climate conversation falls under the heading of competitiveness or energy security,” Dufour said. “There’s a lot of talk on affordability, independence and strategic autonomy.” Energy security has become a major issue this week with the conflict in the Middle East. There are fears Iran could halt navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway for crude and fuels, following the US airstrike on its nuclear facilities. “A high level of oil and gas import dependence, which exposes consumers to the volatility of global oil and gas markets, is the major energy security threat facing the UK and the rest of Europe,” said Michael Bradshaw, an associate fellow at Chatham House. “For the governments of fossil-fuel importing states, the obvious answer is to accelerate the energy transition, increasing renewable power generation and improving energy efficiency.” Read and share this story with your friends and followers on Bloomberg.com. | 
