Climate Change: Considerations for Geographic Combatant Commands PKSOI Paper | Page 33

may be addressed by the Armed Services under their
Title 10 responsibilities, the GCC will focus on those
identified issues relevant for inclusion as updates to
the Campaign Plan and contingency plans while documenting longer-term risks within the GCC’s operational environment assessment. They will account for
the adjusted resource requirements and capability gap
assessments that merit inclusion in the overall IPL; e.g.
additional littoral combat ship or riverine patrol boat
missions in the AOR. Climate change as a risk driver is
the first reason why GCCs must attend to this environmental variable and its effects across the breadth of
their assigned missions.
Beyond the Theater Campaign Plan line of effort
(LOE) “Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief”
which is made more complex by climate changes in
temperature, precipitation, sea level and storm intensity, the LOE “Critical Access and Relations” is another reason why GCCs should consider climate change
adaptation within their theater campaign plans. Helping build a partner nation’s capacity to prepare for
and respond to a disaster and supporting that nation
in the aftermath of a disaster provides a neutral forum
that can be used to build governance capacity and
strengthen relations. The connection between these
LOEs also manifests if the combination of an intense
storm with wave surge upon a higher sea level prevents safe dockside access into port facilities for delivering humanitarian supplies or evacuating displaced
persons escaping inland floods. USSOUTHCOMs two
LOEs detailed above support accomplishment of two
of their military end-states:
• “Partner Nations capable of conducting HA/
DR operations to mitigate effects of disasters,”
and

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