The NATO Science & Technology Organization (STO) Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) will host the Climate Change & Security Workshop (CC&SW) in Lerici (La Spezia, Italy), on October 3-5, 2023.

In accordance to the new NATO CC&S Action Plan and Impact Assessment, CC&SW is sponsored by the NATO STO Office of the Chief Scientist (STO OCS), and will focus on:

• Climate change consequences that might significantly affect Alliance planning and operations, including potential threat multipliers that may deeply impact our Allied security;
• Analysis of possible solutions for climate change impacts affecting naval operations and the security of coastal areas and maritime facilities and their operations.

The CC&SW is directed to defence and climate scientists/scholars, relevant stakeholders, and policy makers, and aims to foster interdisciplinary interaction among academia, decision makers and operators, civilian and military institutions, to exchange ideas on potential ways ahead in the field of climate change and security. The CC&SW is also advising the formulation of the Programme of Work of the new NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence, CCASCOE, for which Canada will serve at the framework Nation.

The following is a not exhaustive list of topics of interest for the Workshop encompassing NATO’s four pillar strategy (awareness, adaptation, mitigation, outreach):

• Climate change related security and risk assessment for maritime human activities and critical infrastructures;
• Climate change related security scenarios for relevant areas (e.g., High North);
• Possible climate change impacts on the naval defence sector;
• Adaptation strategies for coping with climate change related security threats in the maritime domain;
• Systems and technologies for climate change related security in the maritime domain;
• Novel educational approaches in climate change related security for the maritime domain;
• Climate change related security and maritime resilience;
• Challenges and opportunities of climate change in the maritime domain.

We welcome contributions (presentations and posters) addressing basic and applied research in relevant defence and climate science, including the design and the development of systems to raise awareness and mitigate security threats posed by climate change to the extended maritime ecosystem. Aligning with the aforementioned four pillars of NATO CC&S Strategy, contributions should considering both the ocean environment, maritime infrastructures and naval operations and activities, but also address vision, retrospective, and work-in-progress that have the potential to stimulate debate on open challenges and possible solutions for climate change security threats in the maritime domain.