The short- and long-term challenges of climate change and security

Abstract

It is often said that the ‘urgent drives out the important’. Weakened by the financial crisis, and threatened by Russian adventurism to its east and by waves of migration to its south, the EU will be required to respond creatively to both the short- and long-term challenges of climate change. These challenges come at a moment when confidence in the European idea is low, populists have become expert at playing the anti-establishment mood and countries such as the UK are once again allowing the future of Europe to become a football in domestic politics. Wilfried Martens, as always, understood that the best way to focus on the issue was to redefine the challenges of climate change as part of the world of security. The EPP, largely created by him, stands today as a bastion against extremism of all kinds. It is no longer enough for the EU to treat climate change as a purely civilian matter.