Climate action: a leadership opportunity for the Irish Defence Forces

Abstract

Climate leadership involves not only reducing emissions but also inspiring others to act. The Climate Action Plan requires the Irish Defence Forces (DF), a public-sector body, to lead by example in driving far reaching climate action. Beyond mandated targets, the organisation has other climate-related roles and obligations including influence in climate governance and climate security operations.

Acknowledging the organisation is active in climate and sustainability, this qualitative study aims to identify how the DF can take the lead in climate action by examining climate leadership in Defence and the implementation of climate action. The paper draws primarily on literature in climate leadership, climate security and CSR/ESG and is supported with primary data, including three expert interviews providing political, industry and Defence perspectives.

Climate leadership in Defence was found to be the delivery of substantive and effective climate action across all of its relevant climate-related areas. At organisational level, this is facilitated by a polycentric approach, involving all personnel and encouraging experimentation and innovation. Exemplary climate leadership, required of public bodies, was found not to act in isolation, but in conjunction with structural, entrepreneurial and cognitive leadership.

Potential barriers to successful climate action were identified for Defence, with ‘leadership commitment’ and ‘knowledge’ being the most influential. A Defence-specific framework for implementing climate action was developed with five components (leadership commitment, context, policy, implementation and results). The other key outputs of the paper are a model for conceptualising climate leadership in Defence and a set of climate leadership principles.