(Montreal) The new NATO Center of Excellence for Climate Change and Security will move to Montreal.
Posted at 3:42 p.m.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has just officially accepted Canada’s proposal, formulated a year ago, to create and host such an organization, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Spain for a NATO summit largely focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
According to the Government of Canada, NATO has a clear role to play in addressing climate change, which “poses unique challenges for military actors and security agencies tasked with maintaining our security”.
The center of excellence should enable military and civilian actors to develop, improve and pool their knowledge on the repercussions of climate change on security.
“It will also allow participants to work together to put in place required capabilities and best practices and contribute to NATO’s goal of reducing the impact of our military activities on the climate,” reads the Government of Canada website.
The creation of a Center of Excellence for Climate Change and Security is an ongoing initiative led jointly by Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence. At the June 2021 NATO summit, Prime Minister Trudeau announced Canada’s proposal to create and host such a center of excellence.
In presenting the new body, the government stresses that “the various effects of climate change on the behavior of state and non-state actors are not yet fully understood”.
“Women, girls, indigenous peoples, people living in poverty and other vulnerable or marginalized populations are often particularly exposed to the direct and indirect effects of climate change”, we also underline, saying that we want to better understand what climate change means to security and meeting the challenges.