On December 12, 2024, a high-level delegation from the International Council on Environmental Economics and Development (ICEED) visited the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, exchanging views with key NATO officials on the alliance’s evolving priorities concerning traditional security challenges, climate adaptation, and the global energy transition.
Since its founding in 1949, NATO has been a cornerstone of collective security for the Western world, and it has adapted continuously to novel security challenges while retaining its core principles of collective defense and deterrence. In recent years, NATO has increasingly recognized climate change’s impacts on NATO’s operational effectiveness and energy security. Acknowledging climate change as a “crisis multiplier,” NATO officials underscored to ICEED the alliance’s commitment to reducing NATO’s environmental footprint. They explained this must be done while preserving the core pillars of the alliance’s military readiness—fuel availability, supply chain security, and interoperability between member states. Concern over how to mitigate climate-induced security risks while preserving energy security extends beyond NATO’s European and North American member states, and the alliance is deepening its engagement with Indo-Pacific partners like Japan, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand (also known as the ‘IP4’) to address these shared challenges.
The ICEED delegation attended a lunch hosted by Claudio Palestini, an official from the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, where the conversation centered on expanding NATO’s partnerships in education, research, and innovation. ICEED and SPS Programme officials are exploring ways to foster greater engagement between NATO and academic institutions to mutually improve global research and contingency planning to address the world’s climate and economic security challenges. NATO’s representatives expressed enthusiasm for strengthening engagement with civilian organizations like ICEED, particularly in areas of climate resilience and sustainable energy development. As NATO expands its partnerships beyond traditional military alliances, ICEED looks forward to further collaboration with NATO, bridging the gap between security and sustainability for a more resilient future.