On Wednesday, a commencement address of President Obama at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut will help move forward his push for urgent action to fight climate change as a national security imperative. He will talk about the idea that the warming of the planet leads to an ‘immediate risk’ to the United States.

The speech is related to an attempt by President Obama to create a multipronged case for his climate-change agenda; he sees the agenda as a top main concern for his remaining time in office and considers it as a main element of his legacy. He said that his plan is beneficial for the economy and very important to the nation’s security. He said so instead of promoting his plan strictly in environmental terms.

According to reports, President Obama will tell the graduating cadets, “I am here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and, make no mistake; it will impact how our military defends our country. And so we need to act, and we need to act now”.

Earlier, Obama revealed a plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by up to 28% from 2005 levels. The plan will be the White House’s authorized submission to the United Nations prior to a summit meeting in Paris in December. The plan focuses on new Environmental Protection Agency rules aimed at significantly cutting planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from cars and coal-fired power plants.

However, President Obama is strongly opposed by many Republicans and coal industry officials. They say that the proposal is a huge executive overreach and would lead to destruction of the economy.