The symposium is structured as a series of themed presentations and roundtable discussions to explore the options available to our nation’s maritime forces – those of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard – as they seek to adapt to climate and energy challenges. We’ll examine options for adapting strategy, plans and operations, maritime infrastructure, and research priorities to climate challenges. And, we’ll look at options for adapting aviation and ship operations, expeditionary capabilities, and shore-side facilities and infrastructure to energy challenges.

We will draw on expertise from each of our nation’s maritime forces as well as from the broader national security, climate science, and energy communities to explore the options available to US maritime forces as they adapt to climate and energy challenges. By encouraging active participation and networking by the symposium attendees, we intend to create an integrated community dedicated to identifying solutions that better accommodate the changes occurring in global climate and in energy supply and demand.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is a University Affiliated Research Center that supports various departments and agencies of the Federal Government, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Aeronautics and Atmospheric Administration, among others.

The Global Assimilation of Information for Action (GAIA) is a JHU/APL funded internal research and development effort aimed at developing an extensible framework for identifying and acting on critical challenges in areas likely to be impacted by global climate change – to include public health and national security.

CNA is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) that operates the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research on behalf of Department of the Navy and other U.S. Government departments and agencies.

Navy Task Force Climate Change was established by the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Board on May 15, 2009 to identify the impacts of global climate change on the U.S. Navy.

Navy Task Force Energy was established by the Chief of Naval Operations in December 2009 to raise visibility and awareness of energy as a strategic resource, optimize energy considerations in budgeting and acquisition, and recommend Navy-wide energy conservation, environmental stewardship, and alternative energy strategies.

Senior personnel from OSD, the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, academia, and industry will characterize the climate and energy challenges facing our nation’s maritime forces and discuss the options available for adapting to those challenges.

The symposium includes seven roundtables, each composed of a moderator and three or four expert panelists. The roundtable moderator will provide a brief overview of the topic and introduce the panelists. Each panelist will then have 10 to 15 minutes to present his or her views, after which the group will take questions from the audience. Participants may pose questions directly to panelists and speakers or enter their questions and comments using interactive groupware.

The Symposium culminates with a senior-level panel made up of personnel from our nation’s maritime forces, from OSD, and from academia. This group will attempt to synthesize the diverse perspectives offered in the symposium presentations and roundtables to provide an integrated maritime force perspective on options for adapting to climate and energy challenges. Following their presentations, panelists will take questions from the audience.

With each passing year, signs of global climate change become increasingly evident – the average temperatures of the atmosphere and ocean continue to rise; the polar ice caps are melting as are glaciers in the Arctic, Andes, and Himalayas; permafrost is thawing; sea levels are getting higher. The potential implications of these changes for the Earth’s population will be substantial – increased frequency and intensity of severe weather, disruptions in food and water supplies, and forced population migrations, to name a few. At the same time, there is evidence that we’re nearing a peak in petroleum production, the growing cost of which will provide economic incentive to shift to alternative fuels. The effects of many of these changes are likely to be felt keenly in the maritime arena – through increased access to the Arctic region, more frequent need to provide humanitarian assistance or respond to regional destabilization, a nd increased budgets for the fuels needed to power ships, aircraft, and forces and infrastructure ashore. Fortunately, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard have already begun to identify options for addressing some of these challenges. We’ll explore the status of those developments as well as other possibilities in this symposium on Adapting to Climate and Energy Challenges: Options for US Maritime Forces.