NATO is openly backing renewables

Ben Makuch writes on the Politico website that NATO sees clean power as a logical replacement for fossil fuels. This position likely to deepen tensions with the United States.

NATO backs renewables as solution to energy security, despite US skepticism

NATO is openly backing renewables and other non-fossil fuel sources of energy as key to the alliance’s security, even as its most powerful member actively undermines attempts to shift away from oil and gas.

A NATO-backed study released earlier this year advises the transatlantic military alliance to ramp up use of renewables as a more secure alternative to imported oil and gas — a position likely to deepen tensions with the United States.

The center that produced the study, the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence, says its research does not speak for the alliance as a whole, but an official spokesperson for NATO confirmed the growing importance of clean energy sources.

“By diversifying the energy sources, and routes, on which our Alliance depends — including through use of alternative fuels — we not only boost our operational readiness and resilience but reduce dependencies, making us stronger for the future,” said the NATO official in comments to POLITICO.

The war in Iran has exposed the risk for countries in relying on fossil fuel imports. Europe, which has limited oil and gas reserves of its own, is especially vulnerable, and the crisis has prompted the European Union to rush to speed up its switch to renewables. Even in military circles, the answer is becoming clearer: in Europe at least, going greener is key to energy independence.

But using climate friendlier tools of war goes against the administration of President Donald Trump, a skeptic of both NATO and renewable energy whose energy policy is summed up by his tagline “drill, baby, drill.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also been an outspoken critic of what he called “climate change worship,” saying in September: “We are done with that shit.”

The NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence, based in Vilnius, Lithuania, has a different view.

“The energy supply of future military camps is facing a significant change,” said the late-January publication, coming shortly before the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran began and the subsequent choking of the Strait of Hormuz paralyzed global energy supplies. “Until today, military camps have been operated with diesel generators, which are reliable and powerful, but pose considerable logistical challenges as well as environmental disadvantages.”

Rise of green warfare

Since the war in Afghanistan exposed the problems with setting up forward operating bases in remote conditions powered by large and pricey diesel generators, murmurs within NATO have persisted that technologies like solar panels as well as biodiesel and hydrogen were more economically and logistically viable.

Researchers at the center also ran simulations, running the use of various energy scenarios on a future NATO military camps, which confirmed a greener energy model led to a dramatic “reduction in imported fuels” and “20 percent increase in energy efficiency, a 35 percent improvement in energy autonomy.”

“In the future, extensive electrification of camp systems and greatly increased use of renewable energy sources are anticipated,” said the publication, noting how research showed solar panels complemented with wind energy could be one of the next generation solutions.

In a particularly prescient passage on energy security in the same January publication, researchers mentioned how in the past oil imports from rival states have been used as a “bargaining chip” that can result in an oil crisis during conflict. But the publication also notes how the EU and NATO, in particular, have failed in coordinating public, private and military interests to address any future crisis.

“As much as NATO and the EU must craft a joint and coherent framework for their members to collaborate within, just so must individual nations avoid the compartmentalization of public versus private and military versus civilian spheres,” they said.

The war in Iran has already called into question whether allies within NATO have enough jet fuel for their fighters and other aircraft essential to maintaining high readiness and national security. But some are already willing to test out alternatives: Norway said it used synthetic sustainable aviation fuel on the F-35 fighter jet, while France used it to power one of their helicopters in 2023.

For modern militaries relying on diesel or other fossil fuels, it puts them at the mercy of foreign sources. In Ukraine, where several warplanners have seen hints of how future conflicts will unfold, diesel shortages from the current energy crisis have led to rationing in frontline areas. To make up for Ukraine’s fuel shortfalls, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was forced to seek several deals with Persian Gulf states for oil and gas in exchange for his country’s drone expertise.

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