Michelle Melton is a 3L at Harvard Law School. Before law school, she was an associate fellow in the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she focused on climate policy.
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Concerns about the impacts of environmental change on both domestic and international stability have led Beijing to break from decades of reluctance to label climate change as a security issue.
Climate efforts within the industrial sector offer an alternative international approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Trump administration’s working group appears designed to challenge the claim that climate change is something the government should be worried about at all.
For the last 30 years, international negotiators have been seeking a lasting solution to climate change. Yet as the science gets clearer, an effective treaty regime remains elusive.
At least until 2050, climate change will remain a persistent but manageable threat. But by 2100, climate-related national security threats could be existential.
National security stakeholders largely agree that climate change is a threat. The ways in which that threat will manifest remain up for debate.