To coincide with the Planetary Security Conference (PSC) 2019, the worldwide interactive debate series HagueTalks will host and livestream a conversation on achieving national and international action on climate security at 7pm CET on 20 February.
Tom Middendorp, Former Commander of the Armed Forces of the Netherlands, is the first speaker announced for what will be an international panel sharing insights and experience on what it takes to make climate security a truly global effort. He has been actively involved in the settlement of dozens of conflicts worldwide and has long been vocal about climate change as a threat to world peace. "I believe climate change can be a root cause of conflict, can create breeding grounds for extremism, and can trigger migration flows," he commented at PSC 2016. "And therefore I believe there is no security … without climate security.”
Former Commander Middendorp will also be a speaker on the second day's plenary at PSC 2019, under the theme '#Doable: What does resilience imply for hard security and diplomacy?'. Marcel Beukeboom, Climate Envoy of the Netherlands, will moderate the panel which includes Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips (Ret) of the US Navy and Michaela Spaeth, Director for Energy and Climate Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office. The Conference has become the prime high-level meeting place to address how our planet can become more peaceful by tackling security risks emanating from climate change and other environmental stresses.
At the HagueTalks debate, co-hosted by Humanity House, three speakers from PSC 2019 will discuss how the global problem of climate change and the safety risks that arise from it are not felt equally and, despite multiple climate summits, have not yet spurned global action. You can reserve your place here.