This year’s report provides a much more robust discussion of the national security implications of climate change, the threats of which are, for the most part, long-term, but could also have short-term implications, the report said.
“This year, we will see an increasing potential for migration increases by the Central American population, which is reeling from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and extreme weather, including multiple hurricanes in 2020 and several years of recurring droughts and storms, ”the report said.
It adds that the economic and political implications of the coronavirus would reverberate for years and predicted that the economic damage would exacerbate instability in a few countries, although it doesn’t mention them.
Combined with extreme weather caused by climate change, the report says the number of people worldwide experiencing acute hunger will increase from 135 million to 330 million this year. The report says the pandemic has disrupted other health services, including polio vaccinations and HIV treatment in Africa.
Typically, the director of the national intelligence agency delivers the threat assessment to Congress and issues a written report alongside it. But no declassified review was issued last year, as the Trump administration’s intelligence agencies tried to keep the White House from getting angry.
In 2019, Dan Coats, then the director of the national intelligence agency, provided an analysis of threats from Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State that contradicted President Donald J. Trump’s views. The testimony prompted Mr. Trump to lash out on Twitter and admonish his intelligence chiefs “to go back to school.”
Avril D. Haines, the director of the national intelligence agency; William J. Burns, the CIA director; and other top intelligence officials will testify about the report Wednesday and Thursday.