In March 2021, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) released strategic guidance on how the MOD will address the challenge of climate change, the Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach. The new strategy highlights how climate change is relevant to defense, how the UK’s defense enterprise can reduce emissions and increase sustainability, and how decarbonizing defense will contribute to the UK’s ‘net zero by 2050’ target.
American Security Project (ASP) held a conversation on February 1, 2022 with Lieutenant General Richard Edward Nugee, CB, CVO, CBE, British Army, (Ret.). General Nugee was appointed Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy Lead for the Ministry of Defence in 2020 and is the architect of the new UK strategy. He discussed how the strategy was developed, its implications for military capabilities, and how the strategy will be implemented.
Speaker bio:
Lieutenant General Richard Nugee was appointed Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy Lead for the Ministry of Defence in 2020. Previous appointments include Chief of Defence People, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel and Training) and Defence Services Secretary, Chief of Staff to the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Kabul, Army Director General Personnel, Director of Manning (Army), Chief Joint Fires and Influence at Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in Afghanistan. He was appointed MBE in June 1998, CBE in January 2012 and CVO in September 2016. He was awarded the US Legion of Merit for his services in Afghanistan in 2014.
