Environment & Development Resource Centre

30 May 2025 – This report, co-produced and published by EDRC, explors the growing demand for military involvement in climate emergencies worldwide. It provides an in-depth analysis of national frameworks, operational strategies, and international coordination mechanisms shaping civil-military cooperation in all aspects adapting to climate change—resilience to climate shocks, readiness to respond, and response and recovery.

On 28 March 2025 the 17th meeting of the BDCD focused on climate change adaptation and the role of civil - military cooperation. How prepared are EU, NATO and other countries to address rapidly growing climate risks?

16-18 July 2024 - The purpose of the workshop in Sofia, Bulgria was to meet the need for relevant and timely advice from defence and security experts, foster the next generation of experts and contribute to officials’ and public understanding of defence and security issues including the climate and security nexus.

10 April 2024 - The Second Annual ASCS-CSAC Conference included a panel discussion on Civil Military Cooperation in Climate Related Emergencies.

Boulder Colorado, 9-12 April 2024 - EDRC’s Alexander Verbeek speaks in 6 panels at this year’s “Conference on World Affairs: Big Ideas: Endless Discoveries”. These included a discussion on How Climate Change Affects Planetary Security.

Brussels – 24 November 2023 – Participants at the 16th meeting of the BDCD discussed how the European Union and its member states could develop proactive measures to deal with multiple and interacting crises, and how the concept of response diversity could be interpreted and implemented in European policy.

15 June 2023 - Project CASA (Climate and Security Action) will assess the extent to which national militaries especially in the EU and NATO have the necessary financial resources, experts, training, equipment, and facilities to effectively prepare for and respond to the increased occurrence of climate-related emergencies.

Geneva, 6 October 2021 - Geneva based organisations have the opportunity to strengthen their role, outreach and ultimately impact on peace, human security and sustainable development, on a national and global scale

Brussels, 30 April 2021 - The final report by the North-Atlantic Civil-Society Working-Group on Environment and Security (NCWES) contains 116 policy options and practical recommendations concerning climate change and security and other related environment and security issues.

Ottawa, 6 February 2021 - As one of the first to be interviewed, in the podcast episode "In the Shadows – What is climate security," by Rebecca Henrys, EDRC's policy director and co-coordinator of the Brussels Dialogue on Climate Diplomacy (BDCD), Alexander Verbeek examined the security implication of climate change. "In the Shadows" facilitates discussions with experts on national security and intelligence topics related to current affairs.

Washington D.C., 28 January 2021 - The US Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently published a podcast episode on "Climate Security: Bringing Climate into all Sectors” as part of the Theories of Change program, featuring EDRC's policy director and co-coordinator of the Brussels Dialogue on Climate Diplomacy (BDCD), Alexander Verbeek

Brussels, 17 September 2020 - In the context of NATO 2030 launched by the NATO Secretary General on 8 June 2020, NATO has begun to organise a series of thematic events to engage more in-depth with civil society, advocacy and expert groups to further improve NATO’s responsiveness and openness to outside views and expertise.