Planetary Security Initiative (PSI)

Our world faces increasingly complex threats and risks – and climate change is part of many of them. A growing number of research centres and experts have shown the general nature of these risks and tracked their impact on politics, peace and conflict. The United Nations, the World Economic Forum, NATO, the European Union and many governments have all acknowledged climate change as a challenge to human security and international security. Nonetheless there has been limited momentum to formulate policies to address these risks. This is partly because the risks are still underestimated and poorly understood in mainstream defence and foreign policy circles. The Planetary Security Initiative has been launched to help remedy this problem – to spread knowledge, to deepen knowledge where necessary, and to develop and promote policies and good practice guidance to help governments, the private sector and international institutions manage climate-security risks. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign launched the Planetary Security Initiative (PSI) in 2015. In the Spring of 2016 Clingendael was selected to implement the continuation of the PSI together with a consortium of leading think tanks working on this topic. The goal of the PSI is to strengthen the knowledge-policy interface by consolidating the community of practice on planetary security.