Skip to main content

PNNL

  • About
  • News & Media
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
      • Biology
        • Chemical Biology
        • Computational Biology
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Human Health
          • Cancer Biology
          • Exposure Science & Pathogen Biology
          • Metabolic Inflammatory Diseases
        • Integrative Omics
          • Advanced Metabolomics
          • Chemical Biology
          • Mass Spectrometry-Based Measurement Technologies
          • Spatial and Single-Cell Proteomics
          • Structural Biology
        • Microbiome Science
          • Biofuels & Bioproducts
          • Human Microbiome
          • Soil Microbiome
          • Synthetic Biology
      • Chemistry
        • Computational Chemistry
        • Chemical Separations
        • Chemical Physics
        • Catalysis
      • Earth & Coastal Sciences
        • Atmospheric Science
          • Atmospheric Aerosols
          • Human-Earth System Interactions
          • Modeling Earth Systems
        • Coastal Science
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Plant Science
        • Subsurface Science
        • Terrestrial Aquatics
      • Materials Sciences
        • Materials in Extreme Environments
        • Precision Materials by Design
        • Science of Interfaces
        • Solid Phase Processing
          • Cold Spray
          • Friction Stir Welding & Processing
          • ShAPE
      • Nuclear & Particle Physics
        • Dark Matter
        • Flavor Physics
        • Fusion Energy Science
        • Neutrino Physics
      • Quantum Information Sciences
    • Sustainable Energy
      • Electric Grid Modernization
        • Emergency Response
        • Grid Analytics
          • AGM Program
          • Tools and Capabilities
        • Grid Architecture
        • Grid Cybersecurity
        • Grid Energy Storage
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
          • Earth System Modeling
          • Energy System Modeling
        • Transmission
        • Distribution
      • Energy Efficiency
        • Appliance and Equipment Standards
        • Building Energy Codes
        • Building Technologies
          • Advanced Building Controls
          • Advanced Lighting
          • Building-Grid Integration
        • Building and Grid Modeling
        • Commercial Buildings
        • Federal Buildings
          • Federal Performance Optimization
          • Resilience and Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Residential Buildings
          • Building America Solution Center
          • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
          • Home Energy Score
        • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
      • Energy Storage
        • Electrochemical Energy Storage
        • Flexible Loads and Generation
        • Grid Integration, Controls, and Architecture
        • Regulation, Policy, and Valuation
        • Science Supporting Energy Storage
        • Chemical Energy Storage
      • Environmental Management
        • Waste Processing
        • Radiation Measurement
        • Environmental Remediation
      • Fossil Energy
        • Subsurface Energy Systems
        • Carbon Management
          • Carbon Capture
          • Carbon Storage
          • Carbon Utilization
        • Advanced Hydrocarbon Conversion
      • Nuclear Energy
        • Fuel Cycle Research
        • Advanced Reactors
        • Reactor Operations
        • Reactor Licensing
      • Renewable Energy
        • Solar Energy
        • Wind Energy
          • Wind Resource Characterization
          • Wildlife and Wind
          • Community Values and Ocean Co-Use
          • Wind Systems Integration
          • Wind Data Management
          • Distributed Wind
        • Energy Equity & Health
        • Marine Energy
          • Environmental Monitoring for Marine Energy
          • Marine Biofouling and Corrosion
          • Marine Energy Resource Characterization
          • Testing for Marine Energy
          • The Blue Economy
        • Hydropower
          • Environmental Performance of Hydropower
          • Hydropower Cybersecurity and Digitalization
          • Hydropower and the Electric Grid
          • Materials Science for Hydropower
          • Pumped Storage Hydropower
          • Water + Hydropower Planning
        • Grid Integration of Renewable Energy
        • Geothermal Energy
      • Transportation
        • Bioenergy Technologies
          • Algal Biofuels
          • Aviation Biofuels
          • Waste-to-Energy and Products
        • Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
        • Vehicle Technologies
          • Emission Control
          • Energy-Efficient Mobility Systems
          • Lightweight Materials
          • Vehicle Electrification
          • Vehicle Grid Integration
    • National Security
      • Chemical & Biothreat Signatures
        • Contraband Detection
        • Pathogen Science & Detection
        • Explosives Detection
        • Threat-Agnostic Biodefense
      • Cybersecurity
        • Discovery and Insight
        • Proactive Defense
        • Trusted Systems
      • Nuclear Material Science
      • Nuclear Nonproliferation
        • Radiological & Nuclear Detection
        • Nuclear Forensics
        • Ultra-Sensitive Nuclear Measurements
        • Nuclear Explosion Monitoring
        • Global Nuclear & Radiological Security
      • Stakeholder Engagement
        • Disaster Recovery
        • Global Collaborations
        • Legislative and Regulatory Analysis
        • Technical Training
      • Systems Integration & Deployment
        • Additive Manufacturing
        • Deployed Technologies
        • Rapid Prototyping
        • Systems Engineering
      • Threat Analysis
        • Advanced Wireless Security
          • 5G Security
          • RF Signal Detection & Exploitation
        • Climate Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Internet of Things
        • Maritime Security
    • Data Science & Computing
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Graph and Data Analytics
      • Software Engineering
      • Computational Mathematics & Statistics
      • High-Performance Computing
      • Visual Analytics
    • Lab Objectives
    • Publications & Reports
    • Featured Research
  • People
    • Inventors
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Lab Leadership
    • Lab Fellows
    • Staff Accomplishments
  • Partner with PNNL
    • Academia
      • Distinguished Graduate Research Programs
      • Internships
      • Visiting Faculty Program
      • Joint Appointments
      • Joint Institutes
      • Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship
      • Minority-serving Institutions
    • Community
      • Regional Impact
      • STEM Education
        • Resources
        • Student STEM Ambassadors
        • STEM Ambassadors in the Classroom
      • Philanthropy
      • Volunteering
    • Industry
      • Available Technologies
      • Industry
      • Industry Partnerships
      • Licensing & Technology Transfer
      • Entrepreneurial Leave
  • Facilities & Centers
    • All Facilities
      • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility
      • Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center
      • Energy Sciences Center
      • Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
      • Grid Storage Launchpad
      • Institute for Integrated Catalysis
      • Interdiction Technology and Integration Laboratory
      • PNNL Seattle Research Center
      • PNNL-Sequim (Marine and Coastal Research)
      • Radiochemical Processing Laboratory
      • Shallow Underground Laboratory

Breadcrumb

  1. Research
  2. National Security
  3. Threat Analysis
  4. Climate Security

Climate Security

Anticipating climate change
impacts on national security

Need data or models? Visit the PNNL Climate Research Portal!

PNNL is confronting the world’s changing climate by translating energy transition and climate science into strategies that integrate national security, sustainability, and resilience. (Composite image by Shannon Colson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

  • Chemical & Biothreat Signatures
  • Cybersecurity
  • Nuclear Material Science
  • Nuclear Nonproliferation
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Systems Integration & Deployment
  • Threat Analysis
    • Advanced Wireless Security
    • Climate Security
    • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
    • Internet of Things
    • Maritime Security
  • News & Updates
  • Attend a Climate Security Event
  • Publications
  • Projects
  • Explainer Articles

Related Researchers

Jill Brandenberger

Jill Brandenberger

Climate Security Research Lead
Portrait of David Judi

David Judi

Director, Earth Systems Science
Jennie Rice

Jennie Rice

Senior Research Scientist
Annie Boek Peddicord, Climate and Environmental Security Analyst

Annie Boek Peddicord

Climate and Environmental Security Analyst
Lindsey Gehrig, Research Analyst

Lindsey Gehrig

Advisor

Climate security represents the physical, economic, or societal impacts associated with climate change that substantially alter political stability, human security, or national security infrastructure. The growing climate crisis poses geopolitical and socioeconomic stressors like population displacement, terrorism, economic stagnation, impacts to infrastructure, and social unrest. PNNL is anticipating the world’s changing climate by modeling energy futures and translating climate science into decisions that integrate security, sustainability, and resilience.

Climate security mission
PNNL is translating climate science into strategies that integrate national security, sustainability, and resilience. (Image by Jeff London | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

PNNL brings together fundamental observations with computational analysis, scalable models, and technical expertise to protect national security by enhancing the resilience of ecosystems, economies, societies, and critical infrastructure impacted by climate instability.

Through global relationships combining deep climate and national security expertise, PNNL is leading international institutions that translate climate change impacts into implementation plans that bolster climate security. Partnerships like the Joint Global Change Research Institute with the University of Maryland are connecting integrated human-Earth system models with our applied national security analysis to deliver:

  • Climate strategies that integrate societal stability to predict climate change risks across time and spatial scales
  • Impact modeling and analysis to assess vulnerabilities and resilience and define inter-dependent risks
  • Analysis of technology, policy, and institutional implementation scenarios that build countries’ climate security capacity and inform the policy and decision-making processes
  • Cost, benefit, and risk analysis of energy transitions and security implications at national and global scales
  • International capacity building in both environmental and national security domains. 

We integrate human and Earth systems and grid modeling and simulation tools to translate science to support decisions and anticipate significant impacts of climate change—such as hurricanes, heat waves, and other extreme weather events—at local, regional, and global scales. This allows us to model potential power system disruptions, shifting customer and societal expectations, and rapid technological evolution to understand impacts to national security. Models such as the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) explore the dynamics of human-Earth systems and their response to global changes. GCAM scenarios were used to develop the “Long-Term Strategy of the United States: Pathways to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050” published by the White House in 2021.

Together, our modeling, computing and analytics, and even artificial intelligence capabilities, are aiding in predicting events, economics, and impacts on ecosystems and infrastructure, exploring nonproliferation implications in the future of nuclear power, and understanding vulnerabilities around decarbonization and energy transitions from molecular to global scales. 

Ready to learn more?

Visit the PNNL Climate Research Portal for direct access to PNNL's cutting-edge climate science research, including datasets, models, and publications. Our research spans fundamental scientific breakthroughs to practical applications, aimed at understanding climate risks and enhancing resilience across various interconnected sectors, including energy, water, and agriculture.

Latest News

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023
Staff Accomplishment

Panel Highlights Tools for Critical Infrastructure Resilience

Read
Risk analysis for protecting critical infrastructure
AUGUST 24, 2023
Staff Accomplishment

PNNL Experts Highlight How Math Tackles Industry Challenges

Read
Group photo of SIAM MPI Workshop 2023 attendees
JUNE 9, 2023
Staff Accomplishment

PNNL Researchers Contribute Expertise on the Future of Hanford Site Cleanup

Read
Matt Asmussen, Stephanie Johansen, Tom Brouns, and Leah Hare
SEE MORE RELATED NEWS

Research Topics

National Security Earth & Coastal Sciences Sustainable Energy Atmospheric Science Ecosystem Science Data Science & Computing

Related Links

PNNL Climate Research PortalJob Opportunities Related to Climate SecurityWhat is Climate Science?

PNNL

  • Get in Touch
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Doing Business
    • Environmental Reports
    • Security & Privacy
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Program
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
    • Sustainable Energy
    • National Security
Subscribe to PNNL News
Department of Energy Logo Battelle Logo
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is managed and operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn