US Navy secretary previews priorities for Pacific tour

On America’s East Coast, low country and high tides in South Carolina at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island threaten the survivability of one of our most critical installations. Meanwhile, on Fiji’s north coast, flooding and erosion forced the total abandonment of the village of Vunitogoloa eight years ago, forcing its inhabitants to leave homes and history in its wake. These threats — a world and nearly a decade apart — have a common cause: the climate crisis .

The climate crisis is a threat we know well at the U.S. Department of the Navy: It impacts our mission, our people, our platforms and our installations. As secretary of the Navy, I have three enduring priorities: strengthen our maritime dominance, empower our people and strengthen our strategic partnerships. These priorities serve a driving purpose in my comprehensive strategy “ Climate Action 2030 ,” which I signed earlier this year.

The approach builds on the department’s history of leadership and partnership on climate and energy. It commits us to ambitious action across the entire enterprise to combat what both President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have identified as an “existential threat.” It is against this backdrop that I will visit the South Pacific and Oceania region this week.

I will travel to Fiji, Australia and New Zealand to meet with officials and speak with citizens who know this existential threat better than most. We, as Pacific nations, are bound by common dependencies, understandings and challenges — and a common future.

Sea level rise, warmer temperatures, recurring flooding, wild fires, and more frequent and destructive storms challenge our livelihoods and our ability to operate individually and together. Flooding and saltwater intrusion droughts, reduced potable water supplies, and increased water- and food-borne disease can be factors that quickly imperil community health and welfare and can lead to national and regional instability.

A ceremony celebrating Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany becoming a net-zero energy facility is held May 24, 2022. (Jonathan Wright/U.S. Marine Corps)

As the stakes and seas rise, the Navy and Marine Corps remain at the ready. The Navy has addressed real-time drought challenges in places such as the Republic of the Marshall Islands, addressing water distribution system maintenance problems and providing water catchment and low-cost residential water purification techniques.

Additionally, the United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as Seabees, are working with partners to adapt and build resilience throughout the region to buttress themselves against the climate crisis, helping to build renewable energy microgrids as well as shoreline and wetlands improvements. The Marine Corps, the nation’s crisis response force, trains all year to be prepared to respond to any disaster or threat anywhere around the world.

We treat our neighbors as we treat ourselves, applying the same expertise, technology and protection, but not at a cost to our neighbors’ people, security or integrity. While this seems to be the correct and only way to work in partnership with other nations — amid China’s debt-trap diplomacy tactics that leave countries owing a large portion of their public debt to Beijing — doing the right thing for the right reason at the right time bears clarifying, repeating, elevating and prioritizing.

Partnership is symbiotic: Not only do we see opportunities to share our learning, but we see the opportunity to learn from our partners who have advanced and diverse perspectives on the climate crisis we are all confronting. The Office of Naval Research’s Asia-Pacific Technology and Education Partnership program is one way we are doing that. This entity has been building partnerships around climate change challenges in Asia-Pacific countries for over a decade, including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Australia and Japan.

APTEP has created a forum for exchange through a consortium of international universities, utilities and governmental institutions, exchanging technical and educational information and providing opportunities for regional and U.S. experts to work among and learn from each other. These partnerships are now implementing practical solutions to climate change challenges, with U.S., regional and local experts working side by side.

That is not to say these nations care about our efforts to combat the climate crisis only if undertaken in Oceania. They understand better than most that the climate crisis is a global one. The Department of the Navy’s efforts in Norfolk, Parris Island, San Diego or at sea to help in the fight against the climate crisis are just as important. That is why I am eager to share stories about Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, which just became our first net-zero energy base; about our research into hybrid propulsion for our ships; and about how the Navy-Marine Corps team is leveraging our massive size to demand more renewable energy generation.

In my years of service, I learned one hard and fast rule of leadership: You must lead with empathy and from a place of commonality. A leader’s duty is to be a force for positive change, even under the most difficult of circumstances. The Navy-Marine Corps team has a proud tradition of leading — and succeeding — even when the odds seem long. I see the same instinct in my fellow Pacific leaders. We know that by working together we can contribute to and learn together as we face the climate crisis together.

During my visit to meet with our friends in the Pacific, I look forward to reaffirming the strength of our partnership and enhancing and expanding opportunities for us to continue working together. Through partnership, shared values and determination, we can make a positive difference.

U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro served with the service for 22 years and founded SBG Technology Solutions in 2004.

在美国东海岸，南卡罗来纳州帕里斯岛海军陆战队新兵训练营的低洼地带和高潮威胁着我们最重要的设施之一的生存。与此同时，在斐济北海岸，洪水和侵蚀迫使武尼托戈洛亚村在八年前彻底废弃，村民们被迫离开家园，也失去了他们的历史。这些威胁——相隔一个世界，相隔近十年——却有着共同的根源：气候危机。

气候危机是美国海军部深知的一大威胁：它影响着我们的任务、人员、平台和设施。作为海军部长，我有三大长期优先事项：加强海上优势、赋能人员以及强化战略伙伴关系。这些优先事项贯穿于我今年早些时候签署的综合战略《2030年气候行动》之中。

这一方针建立在国防部在气候和能源领域长期以来发挥的领导作用和伙伴关系之上。它承诺我们将采取雄心勃勃的行动，在整个机构范围内应对乔·拜登总统和国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀所认定的“生存威胁”。正是在此背景下，我将于本周访问南太平洋和大洋洲地区。

我将前往斐济、澳大利亚和新西兰，与当地官员会面，并与那些比大多数人更了解这一生存威胁的民众交谈。我们作为太平洋岛国，因共同的依赖、共识和挑战而紧密相连，并拥有共同的未来。

海平面上升、气温升高、洪水频发、野火肆虐以及风暴更加频繁和破坏性更大，这些都对我们的生计和我们个人及集体的运作能力构成了挑战。洪水和海水入侵、干旱、饮用水供应减少以及水源性和食源性疾病的增加，都可能迅速危及社区健康和福祉，并导致国家和地区的不稳定。

2022年5月24日，举行仪式庆祝奥尔巴尼海军陆战队后勤基地成为净零能耗设施。（乔纳森·赖特/美国海军陆战队）

随着形势严峻，海平面不断上升，海军和海军陆战队始终保持高度戒备。海军已在马绍尔群岛共和国等地积极应对旱情挑战，解决供水系统维护问题，并提供雨水收集和低成本的居民用水净化技术。

此外，美国海军建筑营（俗称“海蜂”）正与合作伙伴携手，在整个地区开展适应性建设和韧性提升工作，以应对气候危机，他们参与建设可再生能源微电网，并进行海岸线和湿地治理。作为国家危机应对力量的海军陆战队全年进行训练，随时准备应对世界各地发生的任何灾难或威胁。

我们对待邻国如同对待自己，运用同样的专业知识、技术和保护措施，但绝不会以牺牲邻国人民、安全或完整性为代价。尽管在中国的“债务陷阱外交”策略导致各国背负巨额公共债务的情况下，这似乎是与其他国家合作的正确且唯一的方式，但“在正确的时间出于正确的理由做正确的事”这一原则仍需进一步阐明、重申、提升和优先考虑。

伙伴关系是互惠互利的：我们不仅看到了分享经验的机会，也看到了向合作伙伴学习的机会，他们对我们共同面临的气候危机有着先进且多元的见解。美国海军研究办公室的亚太技术与教育伙伴关系计划正是我们践行这一理念的方式之一。十多年来，该计划一直在亚太地区各国围绕气候变化挑战建立伙伴关系，合作对象包括泰国、越南、老挝、菲律宾、澳大利亚和日本。

APTEP通过国际大学、公用事业机构和政府机构组成的联盟，创建了一个交流平台，促进技术和教育信息的共享，并为区域和美国专家提供相互合作和学习的机会。这些合作关系目前正在实施应对气候变化挑战的切实可行的解决方案，美国、区域和地方专家并肩工作。

这并非意味着这些国家只关心我们在大洋洲开展的应对气候危机的努力。他们比大多数人都更清楚，气候危机是全球性的。海军部在诺福克、帕里斯岛、圣地亚哥或海上为应对气候危机所做的努力同样重要。因此，我非常乐意分享关于奥尔巴尼海军陆战队后勤基地的故事——它刚刚成为我们首个净零能耗基地；关于我们对舰艇混合动力推进系统的研究；以及关于海军陆战队团队如何利用我们庞大的规模来争取更多可再生能源发电的故事。

在我多年的服役生涯中，我领悟到一条至关重要的领导准则：领导者必须以同理心为本，立足于共同点。领导者的职责是成为积极变革的力量，即便在最艰难的处境下也不例外。海军陆战队团队拥有引以为傲的领导传统，即便胜算渺茫，他们也能引领并取得成功。我在太平洋地区的其他领导者身上也看到了同样的特质。我们深知，携手合作，我们才能共同应对气候危机，共同学习，共同进步。

此次访问太平洋地区，我期待与我们的朋友再次会面，重申我们伙伴关系的牢固性，并拓展和深化我们继续合作的机会。通过伙伴关系、共同的价值观和坚定的决心，我们一定能够创造积极的改变。

美国海军部长卡洛斯·德尔·托罗在海军服役 22 年，并于 2004 年创立了 SBG 技术解决方案公司。