This year’s Munich Security Conference was dominated by the current build-up of forces at the Ukrainian border and European security architecture. Nevertheless, the climate crisis as a challenge to security occupied a central role at the conference, which took place from February 18-20, 2022.
The Munich Security Report 2022 identified the climate crisis as central in a “rising tide of mutually reinforcing crises”, including the global health crisis and democratic backsliding. Data from the Munich Security Index 2022 showed that citizens’ concerns about climate change and related risks increased even further since 2021.
Yet, amidst the threat of war in Europe, the pandemic and global energy supply shortages, immediate global attention on climate change is at risk. As Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen noted, “a new wave of defence expenditure” could “take money away from the climate issue”. He was part of a panel discussion on the topic of “Rising Tides: Scaling Up Global Climate Action” along with the United Arab Emirates Minister for Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Al Jaber, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and German State Secretary Franziska Brantner.
Concerns about the ongoing Russian crisis distracting from climate change were echoed by John Kerry and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Highlighting the current “resurgence of gas and coal”, Kerry brought attention to the lagging progress on commitments made at COP26 in November. Both UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Baerbock mentioned that moving away from Russian gas imports would play an important role in the face of the current crisis. Baerbock, Kerry, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and COP26 President Alok Sharma spoke at a townhall on “Good COPS: Aligning International Climate Diplomacy”.
The conference featured several other high-level events on the topic of climate change, security, and cross-cutting issues. These included a townhall about “Seed Change Needed: Ensuring Food Security”, followed by a roundtable on the topic of “Winds of Change: The Geoeconomics of Climate Change”. The issues also played a role in a conversation on “Digital, Green, Unified, and Global? Shaping the Future of the EU” and in events about regional security in the Arctic, the Indo-Pacific, and the Sahel zone, as well as in discussions on disarmament and the future of the JCPOA.
Climate and security topics also featured in side-events of the conference, such as a panel on "Crop Apartheid? Rethinking Geoeconomics and the Unintended Consequences of the EU's Structural Power", tackling mitigation of climate change-induced insecurities. Another high-level unofficial dinner organised by the International Military Council on Climate Security (IMCCS) and NATO featuring Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand, Tom Middendorp (ret.) of IMCCS and NATO representatives- David van Weel, Assistant Secretary-General for Emerging Security Challenges, and Baiba Braže, Assistant Secretary-General for Public Diplomacy. Participants focused on discussing the topic of climate adaptation and climate security.
Climate security was also featured prominently at the 56th Munich Security Conference in 2020 when the first IMCCS report, World Climate Security Report, was launched by Tom Middendorp (ret.). In 2019, the Munich Security Conference put the impacts of climate change and its effects on the Sahel region high on the agenda.