See video highlights with interviews from the 17th Hague Roundtable.
Just weeks before the NATO Summit 2025 in The Hague, “Energy security in a time of increased defense spending” was the theme as some 70 participants from more than 20 countries met for the 17th Hague Roundtable on Climate and Security. The meeting on 5 June provided a forum for representatives of numerous embassies, NGOs, universities and the private sector to exchange expertise on threats and solutions amid emerging challenges in shifting international priorities and security focus.
The Roundtable took place against the backdrop of changing geopolitical winds coined by rapid expansion of defense budgets across the globe – led by the U.S., China, Russia, Germany, the UK and India – and increasing investments in military procurement and industrial programs to ramp up domestic capacities.[1] Fanack Water was represented in the meeting by Reinier Hietink, Fanack Vice-President International Relations; and by The Hague Roundtable Organizer-Founder, Matt Luna, who is also a Senior Advisor for Fanack Water. The British Embassy in The Hague co-organized and supported the meeting.
Roundtable discussion leader Glada Lahn, a Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre, presented on tangible areas for international cooperation on peace-positive climate and energy security agendas. Ms. Lahn posted on social media following the meeting that “In the run up to the NATO Summit in The Hague, I was intrigued to take a seat at this roundtable with an engaged group of diplomats, energy, climate and security experts. Going forward, views in the room were diverse but tended to converge on the need to:
- Recalibrate our perceptions of defense and security to include a long-term safe and liveable world;
- Seize opportunities for useful military technology research and development, transfer and diffusion re clean energy, climate risks and response;
- Align security visions with a changing (electrified) energy picture, envisioning greater distributed sources and cross border grid connectivity as a plus for resilience against traditional lines of fuel supply.”
The Water-Food-Energy Nexus was also a linking point in discussions as Rachael McDonnell, Deputy Director General, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), led breakout group discussions on how areas of climate adaptation can be elevated in international agendas. Exchanges in this breakout group included developing trends of insurance companies reducing investment in water-related initiatives due to increasing risks, and concerns over hydropower and nuclear plants with cooling issues during hot seasons. “We must have this type of discussion, because it brings in people from many different angles and the way they think about energy (and water) security in changing climate times. We’ve heard today about major energy production in the North Sea, and what this means not only to the areas that are generating, but in terms of regional cooperation,” said Ms. McDonnell in a video interview about the Roundtable, which will be published soon.
Another breakout group addressed energy security and increasing uptake in renewables, led by Hannah Lentschig from the Clingendael Institute. A central theme of this group discussion focused on how substantial public investments in defence could be used to drive innovation in energy and clean technologies, particularly across shared supply chains. And a breakout in an adjacent room addressed incorporating new risk analyses in resources management with changes in climate, led by Harry Steenwijk of the RiskChallenger company in the Netherlands.
Jan Vorrink, Senior Advisor International Affairs at TenneT, as a discussion leader highlighted recent actions and ambitions of the company and exchanged with Roundtable participants on issues of energy security, climate and conflict beyond the Netherlands, including threats to energy security from climate impacts such as storms and extreme heat. TenneT is an energy delivery company that services the Netherlands and large parts of Germany with a “secure, sustainable, and cost-effective energy supply,” according to its website.
Anna Walters, Head of Climate Strategy and Diplomacy, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), came from London and led off the meeting as she framed these topics in context of current geopolitical complexities and increased spending in defense, along with needed points of action now and in the near future with a range of organizations and countries. Keith Allan, Deputy Ambassador, British Embassy The Hague, added, “We had a good think at The Roundtable about what more can we do to find that balance.”
Summaries of presentations, breakout group findings are coming soon in the report from The Hague Roundtable on Climate & Security. For more information, visit hagueroundtable.com. The Hague Roundtable on Climate & Security is an independent forum to promote international cooperation in adapting to climate risks to topics including water resources, natural disasters, energy, sea level rise, migration, conflict risk reduction and stability of fragile states.
[1] Excerpt from Roundtable breakout summary by Hannah Lentschig at the Clingendael Institute that will be featured in the Roundtable report. See also, Policy brief on energy security and the Clean Industrial Deal: Towards Green Industrial Partnerships | Clingendael