ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY OF THE LEBANESE ARMY FORCES IN THE CONTEXT OF CHANGING CLIMATE AND ENERGY SECURITY

Abstract

This research elaborates the importance of sustainable energy development and resiliency of the armies under an alarming threat of climate change on the national security and energy security of a country. Energy security, an integral part for national security for the Lebanese army forces, was assessed for Lebanon by developing an aggregated energy security performance index that captures the overall development of energy security during the period of 1990-2020. The energy security index possesses 4 dimensions that are linked to sustainable development, namely “energy affordability”, “energy availability”, “energy and economic efficiency”, and “environmental stewardship”. The results illustrated that the Lebanese energy security performance is weak in all its dimensions related to energy security during the studied period. Moreover, an assessment of the economic and environmental feasibility of hybridization of the Lebanese army forces transport system was carried out to increase army’s resiliency to high fuel prices and fuel supply interruptions. A cost benefit analysis scheme was utilized to identify the better solution. The results showed that hybrid sedans and SUVs are feasible where they have lower cost of ownership (4% and 16% respectively) and GHG emissions (5% and 16%) than the conventional vehicles, while the hybrid buses have higher cost of ownership (29%) but lower GHG emissions (32%). Utilizing hybrid SUV’s and sedans in the current LAF vehicles fleet can save 10% of the costs used to operate them.