NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Tuesday 28 June the carbon ambitions of the organisation he leads.
“By 2030, we will reduce emissions by at least 45% and achieve neutrality by 2050”, he announced at the NATO public forum. “It won’t be easy, but we can do it”, he added.
At the Alliance’s summit, which began on Tuesday evening, the Allies are expected to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for NATO as an organisation.
While the Alliance and the Allies cannot “compromise (their) military effectiveness”, at the same time they have “a responsibility to reduce emissions”, Mr Stoltenberg stressed, recalling that climate change is a “major challenge of our time”.
Beyond reducing emissions, the Alliance needs to strengthen its understanding of climate change. To this end, the Secretary General has published an initial assessment of the impact of climate change on the Alliance’s security, assets, facilities and activities. Moreover, NATO must adapt to this change and will take it into account when planning its operations and missions and developing new capabilities to remain effective in increasingly challenging environments.
In order to accurately assess its emissions, both civilian and military, the Alliance has developed a methodology for what to “count and how to count it”, which will be made available to all Allies to help them reduce their own emissions. Mr Stoltenberg recalled that the Allies had committed themselves to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement and that the adaptation of their armies would contribute to this, notably through the use of green technologies.
He also announced that he would ask NATO’s civilian and military authorities to develop a new initiative entitled ‘Energy Transition By Design’ and present it at the next meeting of the High Level Dialogue next year. The Secretary General wants common benchmarks and standards to be set, so that “we can innovate together while maintaining operational efficiency”.
The high-level meetings, which will be held annually, “will allow NATO to be at the interface between climate and security”, he said.
See the evaluation: https://aeur.eu/f/2dp (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Léa Marchal)