Climate Security Webinar

The Finnish Ministry of the Interior is organising together with the Savonia University of Applied Sciences a Webinar on Climate Security. The event is part of the Finland’s Presidency year of Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), which started July 1st 2023. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the CBSS Presidency as a whole, while the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the contents of rescue services and civil protection. One of the key themes for the Finnish Presidency year is to strengthen the cooperation between the Baltic Sea States and establish new and develop existing networks.

In the spirit of Finland’s Presidency and cooperation within the climate change actors in the Baltic Sea area, we would like to invite you to the webinar on 29.11.2023 at 14-16 EET / 13-15 CET.

What is climate security and why is it important?

Climate security combines climate crisis and climate emergency. Climate crisis is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. This term and the term climate emergency have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity and the planet, and to urge climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Climate change threatens the stability and security of society in many ways, and its effects will only in-tensify in the coming decades. Both the changing climate and strong mitigation and adaptation efforts create new uncertainties and risks.

Climate change can exacerbate food, water, health and livelihood insecurity, with cascading effects such as increased competition over natural resources, social disruptions, and displacement. This can lead to increased tensions, conflict, and instability in a country or region.

Climate change is not only a threat to the future of our planet, it is already driving humanitarian crises around the world. Climate security refers also to the impacts of the climate crisis on peace and security, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

Climate change affects also the way that our economy functions. This happens as a result of two types of risk:

the physical risks of a changing climate, including more frequent or severe weather events like flooding, droughts and storms
the transition risks from moving towards a carbon-neutral economy

We need a new kind of climate crisis management to manage climate-related risks. We wish you warmly welcome!

CBSS-team and Savonia

Invitation and agenda 29.11.2023 (pdf)