US Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center environmental program on climate change

The United States Navy has a long record of responsible environmental stewardship covering many areas such as environmental planning, regulatory compliance, site clean-up, and protection of natural resources. The Navy is now beginning to appreciate the potentially devastating potential of a new set of environmental issues related to climate change. There is a growing recognition that the Navy will need to perform its national security mission in a changing global environment characterized by: 1) Rising sea levels that threaten the viability of Navy coastal installations 2) Increasing extreme weather events that threaten Navy shore installations and air and sea operations 3) Climatic shifts in temperature and precipitation with attendant problems such as disruption in water resources, reductions in food supply, and increase in disease vectors This paper provides a broad overview of climate change-related technology work at the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NAVFAC ESC) in Port Hueneme, California. NAVFAC ESC categorized technologies that can be applied to climate change as mitigation, adaptation, and intervention. An essential element of the Navy's response to climate change is assessment of the potential impacts on Navy infrastructure. Adaptation technologies primarily focus on infrastructure changes to accommodate future climate conditions, including relocating facilities. Mitigation technologies seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change, typically through energy conservation or adoption of alternative energy sources. NAVFAC ESC has also identified approaches for intervention technologies that seek to alter the impacts of climate change through such means as carbon sequestration and storm abatement.