Climate and Energy Imperatives for Future Naval Forces Symposium Home Page

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) and CNA (which operates the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research) are co-hosting a symposium on Climate and Energy Imperatives for Future Naval Forces at the JHU/APL’s Kossiakoff Center on 23-24 March 2010. The symposium will be structured as a series of themed presentations and roundtable discussions to explore the many ways in which changes in climate and energy availability may impact the composition and employment of future U.S. naval forces. We’ll begin by examining how climate change is likely to affect the Earth and its maritime environment. We will then discuss the increasing global demand for energy resources, and impending changes in energy supply. With this as background, we’ll then take a region-by-region look (based on the Combatant Command areas of responsibility) at how changes in climate and energy may impact future naval forces – what they’ll need to be able to do and how they might best be organized and equipped to carry out those tasks.

JHU/APL Kossiakoff Center, Site for Climate and Energy Imperatives 2010

The symposium will close with an Integration and Synthesis panel that will provide an integrated look at these changes across the set of regional Combatant Commands. To facilitate audience participation, the symposium will feature use of interactive electronic groupware.

SYMPOSIUM OBJECTIVE

We will draw on the expertise of leading national security strategists, analysts, and technologists to explore the ways in which changes in climate and the availability of energy are likely to impact the composition and employment of future U.S. naval forces. By encouraging active attendee participation and networking, we intend to form an integrated community dedicated to identifying solutions that better accommodate the ever-changing global environment.

Recognized experts in climate change, energy supply and demand, and naval operations from the government, military, defense research, and academic communities will present their perspectives during the symposium.

The symposium includes five roundtables, each composed of a moderator and expert panelists. We’ll have a roundtable on climate change, one on energy availability, and three regionally focused sessions to explore how changes in climate and energy will impose imperatives for future naval forces – we’ll look specifically at operations in the Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia and the Pacific. Each 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 panel of senior-level national security thought leaders who will synthesize the diverse perspectives offered in the symposium presentations and roundtables to provide an integrated view of how changes in climate and energy availability may affect the ways in which the United States should organize, equip, and employ its future naval forces. Following their presentations, panelists will take questions from the audience.

As each year passes, signs of global climate change become increasingly evident – average temperature is rising; the polar ice caps are melting as are glaciers in the Arctic, Andes, and Himalayas; permafrost is thawing; sea levels are rising. The potential human implications of these changes are 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’ve reached 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 will be felt first in the maritime arena – through increased access to the Arctic region and more frequent need to provide humanitarian assistance or respond to regional destabilization. In the years before these effects become truly serious, we need to start thinking about what we’ll want our future naval forces to be able to do and how they might best be organized and equipped to carry out those tasks. This symposium on Climate and Energy Imperatives for Future Naval Forces advances that cause.