Maritime spaces as a strategic environment for the climate security of the European Union

Today, environmental degradation, understood as the loss of biodiversity and pollution attributed to climate change, has increased vulnerability and exposure to peace and security risks in coastal zones and maritime spaces. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels and loss of marine resources are factors that act as catalysts for instability and insecurity in the global maritime domain by fuelling transnational crime, piracy, maritime boundary disputes and geopolitical fragility because of access to natural resources on the ocean floor. Against this backdrop, in order to safeguard security interests and ensure ocean governance in each of its sea basins and outermost regions, the European Union addresses climate change and environmental degradation as a threat to maritime security by linking each of the priority objectives defined in the revised Maritime Security Strategy (2023) to their protection in the interests of so-called climate security. This paper addresses the consideration of climate change as a non-traditional threat to maritime security, the main lines of action envisaged by the European Union to counteract it and the mechanisms and initiatives planned to promote peace, security, and freedom of navigation. To this end, we will analyse the official documents and the scientific-academic narrative linking climate change and maritime security, as well as those reflecting the official position of the European Union in this field., in order to identify possible gaps and future lines of action to be taken by the actors involved.