Sustainability

Under the theme “Imagining the Geopolitics of a Net Zero World”, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) co-hosted an energy security roundtable with the Offshore Northern Seas Foundation (ONS) on August 25 and 26, 2024. The event on the eve of the bi-annual ONS Conference, one of the world’s largest energy fora, brought together around 50 participants from various sectors, including politics, industry, academia, and civil society, as well as different countries of both the Global North and South.

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The MSC hosted four events under the theme “Forging Ahead: Towards a Safer Climate” at the margins of COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on December 1 and 2, 2023.

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Under the theme „Global Action That Sticks: The Way Forward on Climate Security” the MSC hosted five events at the margins of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on November 8 and 9, 2022. In times of heightened geopolitical tensions, it is critical to forge more robust climate cooperation that can withstand political and economic upheavals. The MSC used its position as a platform for security dialogue to bring together international actors from different sectors, seeking to enable the multilateral and multi-stakeholder cooperation that is needed to effectively counter climate change and related security threats.

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On August 28, 2022 the Munich Security Conference (MSC) co-hosted a high-level roundtable on energy security with the Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) Foundation in Stavanger, Norway. The event on the eve of the bi-annual ONS Conference, one of the world’s largest gatherings of the energy industry, brought together around 40 high-level participants for several discussion sessions chaired by MSC Vice-Chairman Ambassador Boris Ruge and ONS President Leif-Johan Sevland. The war in and for Ukraine combined with the impact of accelerating climate change provided both a dramatic backdrop to the discussions and a clear sense of urgency. Relevant action items identified during the sessions have been integrated into the "transatlantic to-do list" which the MSC launched in the wake of its Munich Leaders Meeting in May 2022 in Washington, DC.

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On May 21 2022, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) hosted a panel discussion at the Digital Life Design (DLD) Conference in Munich, in which four Munich Young Leaders discussed Europe’s energy dependence on Russia and its geopolitical consequences. The panel consisted of Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sven Mikser, Member of the European Parliament from Estonia, and Oleksiy Ryabchyn, advisor to the CEO of Naftogaz Ukraine and energy advisor to the Deputy Prime-Minister of Ukraine. The discussion was moderated by Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Non-Resident Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin.

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On November 3, 2021, the Munich Security Conference (MSC), in cooperation with The New York Times (NYT) and Siemens Energy, hosted a panel discussion at the NYT Climate Hub at the margins of COP26 in Glasgow. The session titled "Two Steps or Not Two Steps: The Power of (Incremental) Change on the Race to Net Zero" was moderated by Katrin Bennhold, NYT Berlin Bureau Chief and featured the following panelists: Christoph Heusgen, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the MSC Foundation, David Livingston, Senior Advisor to the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy, and Julie Teigland, Managing Partner at EY EMEIA. The session brought together key stakeholders from policy and industry to discuss concrete and actionable measures on the race to net zero.

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On November 2, 2021, the Munich Security Conference (MSC), in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office and adelphi, and with the support of Luxembourg, Nauru and the United Arab Emirates, hosted a hybrid side-event at COP26 in Glasgow, titled "Climate, Peace and Stability: Weathering Risk Through COP and Beyond".  The discussion was live streamed and is available here. 

The session, moderated by Ambassador Ischinger, Chairman of the MSC, highlighted the climate-security nexus in the context of COP26. All 13 speakers in the discussion underlined how crucial it is to recognize and act on the interlinkages between climate, peace and stability, as well as the need to incorporate these concerns in all action to combat climate change.

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On September 27, 2021, the Munich Security Conference (MSC), in cooperation with adelphi, hosted the virtual opening session of the Berlin Climate and Security Conference (BCSC), titled "Multilateral Momentum: An Agenda for Action on Climate, Peace, and Stability." The session kicked-off the BCSC, which brings together high-level representatives from government, international organizations, science, industry, and civil society to discuss the implications of climate change for peace and security. Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the MSC, moderated the discussion between Raychelle Omamo, Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, and Benedetta Berti, Head of Policy Planning at NATO.

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On September 22, 2020, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) hosted a Digital Conversation titled "Great Expectations – ’Climate-Proofing’ Europe’s Foreign and Security Policy" at the Berlin Climate and Security Conference. John Kerry, former Secretary of State of the United States, was among the participants along with other senior decision-makers and experts from government, business, international organisations, NGOs, and the think tank community. The group explored how climate security can be mainstreamed into European foreign and security policy, and what other countries – close partners as well as particularly affected regions – expect from the European Union, and Germany in particular, as climate security actors.

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On August 31, 2020, the Munich Security Conference (MSC), in cooperation with the Offshore Northern Seas Foundation (ONS), hosted a high-level digital event titled “A Game Changer – How Will the Energy Transition Transform the Geopolitics of Energy Security?”. Organizing its third discussion on energy security this year, the MSC thereby continued its Economic & Resource Security Series. Set up as a confidential format, a distinguished and diverse group of representatives from governments, international and nongovernmental organizations, academia, and industry discussed the European energy transition and potential geopolitical shifts accompanying the changing global energy mix.

Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Francesco La Camera, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency, Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Meghan O’Sullivan, Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Statkraft AS, gave introductory statements. The event was moderated by Boris Ruge, Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, and Amos Hochstein, Executive Vice President of Tellurian Inc.

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Titled “Trading Violence: Conflict Economies in the Sahel and Beyond,” the Transnational Security Roundtable at the Munich Security Conference 2020 dealt with illicit flows in conflict settings. Co-hosted with PMI Impact, Knowledge Partner of the MSC’s Transnational Security Series, the off-the-record roundtable brought together 40 policy-makers and academic experts from various national, regional, and international levels.

Following on-the-record opening statements by Abdalla Hamdok, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Sudan, and Michèle Coninsx, UN Assistant Secretary General and Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, participants discussed the interconnection between illicit economies and conflict.

Economic activity often takes on an informal character during conflict, helping communities to cope while other options are not available. However, so-called conflict economies can also evolve to incentivize the continuation of conflict, thus creating spoilers to peace. Speakers pointed out that the drivers towards illicit activities are actually similar across the world, rather than just limited to conflict regions, and stressed the need for cooperation across sectors and borders to address the challenge.

As part of the Munich Security Conference 2020, the MSC hosted an Energy Security Roundtable in cooperation with the Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) Foundation. Titled „Staring Down the Barrel: Energy Security, Geopolitics and Transatlantic Cohesion” high-ranking government representatives and leading figures from the industry and academia discussed transatlantic security challenges in an increasingly volatile energy policy environment.

Various participants, in particular with view to the EU, highlighted the importance of further energy diversification with regard to both sources and delivery routes. Further, they underlined that energy security increasingly means the protection of energy infrastructures. Moreover, the security of supply can only be improved if internal energy markets are deepened, and energy grids further expanded and linked. Beyond geostrategic and security policy considerations, the discussion focused on environmental questions. Although the participants were firmly in agreement about the goal of lowering CO2 emissions – but not about the rate of decarbonization or the type of measures to be taken. A major topic of discussion in this context was the role of fossil fuel and, further, the potential economic, geopolitical and societal implications of more drastic climate protection policies.