Climate Security Learning Series

Priorities have shifted in 2025, and this learning series seeks to build understanding of national and regional security approaches to climate change.

Throughout 2025, the Community of Practice on Environment, Climate, Conflict, and Peace (ECCP) will host a learning series on climate and security, unpacking key concepts in climate security including vulnerability, anticipatory action and early warning, mobility and migration, human security, risk, resilience, and much more. To root the discussions in contemporary policy and practice, the ECCP will invite key guest speakers from NATO, the EU, the OSCE, and other security and climate institutions to shed light and build connections between siloed fields.

Noting significant shifts in global policy and priorities in 2025, this series aims to:

1. Build a wide understanding of national security interests and approaches to climate change, from a wide variety of actors and perspectives, and

2. Identify and create entry points for peacebuilding actors to engage with security institutions in meaningful ways.

The series will explore how the growing emphasis on hard security affects climate-related decision-making, where opportunities for collaboration exist, and how ECCP’s expertise can contribute to security sector discussions. Potential outputs could mirror or build on prior ECCP collaborative policy work, including policy briefs for UNFCCC COP28 and COP29, CBD COP16, and a collaborative, multi-lingual White Paper on the Future of Environmental Peacebuilding.

The series has been developed primarily for members of the ECCP Community of Practice, especially those unfamiliar with security institutions. While the series won’t be widely advertised, it will be open to the wider public, including non-members. The goal for each session is to have a somewhat smaller, more intimate number of attendees whose active work focuses on these issues. 

Sessions are outlined below and are being added to this webpage on a rolling basis. Connection links are available via the calendar on our 2025 Activity page: https://ecosystemforpeace.org/2025.

Gender, Climate, and Security, 22 July - 17h CET

Join experts Maryruth Belsey Priebe, aXXelerate and Sophia Stanger, Austrian Centre for Peace, for an engaging hour unpacking gender, climate, and security. This session will include practical examples, and ample space for group discussion.

Briefing with the OSCE, 17 June - 14h CET

How does the OSCE frame climate security? Where do peacebuilding and human security approaches fit in? How can an expanded definition of security include climate risks without securitizing social vulnerabilities such as migration and livelihoods? Join colleagues from the OSCE to explore their approach and conceptual framework for climate security.

Briefing with NATO, 12 June

What is the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence? How does it pursue its mission to support the efforts of NATO Allies and partners to adapt to the implications of climate change on their security and mitigate their own impact on climate change while strengthening operational effectiveness? This briefing unpacked NATO approaches and conceptualization of climate security.

Find notes and a PPT presentation here.

Understanding the military’s contribution to the climate crisis, 4 June

Militaries are responsible for an estimated 5.5% of global emissions, but they are often missing from the conversation around emissions reporting and decarbonisation. This session is an opportunity to learn more about military and conflict emissions, how this issue is progressing in the UNFCCC, NATO, and EU levels, and what needs to change. Presented by Ellie Kinney, CEOBS. Video recording available below and notes available here.

Briefing with the EU, 15 May

How does the EU assess climate security risks, and what tools (e.g., early warning systems, risk assessment frameworks) does it use? What role do regional climate and security dialogues play in fostering collaboration between security and peacebuilding actors? Join three speakers managing three different workstreams across the EU to unpack climate, peace, security, and the European Union.

No recording made, but notes are available here.

Climate, Peace, and Security in the Arctic, 24 April

Cedric de Coning, NUPI, led a presentation outlining the climate, peace, and security landscape in the Arctic. You can find the notes, presentation, and recording here.

Pre-Briefing, 24 March

On 24 March 2025, we organized a “pre-briefing” session which aimed to provide an introduction to key concepts on climate, peace, and security, defining our terms and laying the foundation for future briefings. Join experts Raquel Munayer and Abby Robinson for a 60-minute deep dive on climate security in the below video!

This series is built by our Environment, Peacebuilding, and Security Policy Working Group. To learn more about that group, send us an email at ecosystemforpeace@gmail.com.