Climate change important security policy issue – Chancellor Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said climate change was one of the major security policy issues of today, in a video podcast ahead of the Munich Security Conference running 15 to 17 February. “Wealth, economic development and security are strongly connected, so the Security Conference isn’t just about military issues and traditional security questions, but also sustainable development in regards to climate change, and economic development, which is especially important in regards to our neighbouring continent Africa,” Merkel said. As a newly elected non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Germany said it will make the impacts of climate change on international security a priority during its term.

Merkel will be one of many high-level politicians attending the 2019 Munich Conference. Conference chair Wolfgang Ischinger told journalists in Berlin that climate-related risks posed important questions for “future-oriented security policy”. Ischinger also commented on the recent EU compromise over the controversial Russian-German natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, saying last week’s dispute demonstrated that joined-up EU foreign policy had to include policy areas like energy and climate. “In the long run, this can only work if Germany accepts that energy foreign policy must be part of such integrated foreign policy,” Ischinger said.