On Thursday, November 5 the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted a discussion on the immediate impacts of climate change on US economic and national security.

As the COP21 talks in Paris approach, the attention of the international community is fixated more than ever on climate. Still, much of today’s climate discourse focuses on the long-term impacts rather than the immediate ramifications of climate change. This panel of climate experts sought to highlight the urgency of these issues from the perspective of both the public and the private sector. Joining us for this session were Judge Alice Hill, Senior Director for Resilience Policy at the National Security Council, The Hon. Sherri Goodman, President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, and Alex Kaplan, Vice President of Global Partnerships at Swiss Re. Additionally, Valerie Volcovici, a climate and energy reporter at Reuters, moderated the discussion.