The Wall Street Journal has reported that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has added climate change to the list of security risks he’s bringing up with military officials from Southeast Asia. I have always believed that climate change is a national security issue, more than an environmental one, and framing it as such I think will help in the difficult process of getting Americans to care about climate change (multiple polls indicate Americans rank climate change as one of their lowest concerns).

The Pentagon is involved in disaster relief and humanitarian aid, and thus has concerns about natural disasters, which are a particular problem in Southeast Asia. Additionally, climate change can lead to one of the biggest security risks and causes of conflict–food insecurity and refugee migration.

Every four years the Pentagon releases a complete defense review, which outlines all of the global security threats. The document drives allocation of defense spending and priorities, and in 2010 for the first time it identified climate change as a national security threat. The military is in fact one of the biggest supporters of cleantech with investments ranging from biofuels to solar, all of which have the potential to improve the functioning of the armed forces. Getting the defense secretary to begin speaking out about climate change in terms of security is an important step.