Several federal agencies are reportedly refusing to take part in a White House panel that will reassess and counter the government’s previous conclusions on climate change.
The Washington Post reported Monday that several agencies have informed the National Security Council (NSC), which started the initiative, that they are unlikely to participate in the panel.
{mosads}The Post reported in February that the NSC initiative would challenge the degree to which humans are the cause of climate change. The initiative is considered a modification of NSC senior director and climate change denier William Happer’s original plan to create a panel on the effects of climate change and national security.
The Department of Defense, the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are among the agencies that have not yet offered experts to the White House for the initiative, according to the Post.
An intelligence official told the newspaper that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recommended that the intelligence community be excluded from the committee “given [its] role is not to conduct scientific climate change studies but to assess and analyze national security implications of climate change.”
Defense Department spokesman Johnny Michael referred questions from the Post about the department’s participation in the initiative to the White House.
“What I can tell you is that the effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to [Defense Department] missions, operational plans and installations,” he told the Post in an email, adding that the Pentagon “will focus on ensuring it remains ready and able to adapt to a wide variety of threats — regardless of the source — to fulfill our mission to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”
The federal government last year released the National Climate Assessment. The assessment warned that climate change could have devastating effects on the economy, health and environment and that current efforts to counter climate change were insufficient.