Last week, with little fanfare, or media attention, the White House released its report on National Security Implications of Climate Change. The report outlines the risks and threats posed to both the homeland and foreign policy interests from climate change.  A week before that, the State Department released its Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Report (QDDR), which is the State Department’s major stock taking project that happens every four years. The QDDR elevated Climate Change to one of the State Department’s four “strategic priorities” —  featuring it alongside Countering Violent Extremism, Open Democratic Societies, and Inclusive Economic Growth. In other words, climate change is to be considered as important a priority as, say, fighting terrorism.

Taken together, these two reports provide the framework for one of the most significant shifts in U.S. foreign policy in recent memory — and one that so far has been unceremoniously ignored by most of the media.

National Security Implications of Climate Change comes as the culmination of a series of similar reports released by U.S. federal agencies and think tanks over the past decade assessing preparedness, vulnerability, and national security threats to a changing climate and its compounding effects. But unlike other reports that detail the national security challenges posed by climate change, this one comes directly from the White House. And, for the first time it appears that there are concrete measures in the works to develop “climate resiliency” as a foreign policy objective. This is a country’s ability to prepare, cope, and adjust to the adverse impacts of accelerating and increasingly uncertain climate changes.

The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review takes this idea even further, and for the first time, outlines key directives for ensuring climate change considerations become ingrained deep into the foreign policy bureaucracy.  This includes taking long term measures to ensure that the foreign policy bureaucracy — the women and men who design and implement US foreign policy —  integrate of climate issues into all development and diplomacy policies and programing. It also includes instructions to increase climate competency and literacy in hires and current employees.

For the complete article, please see UNdispatch.