Climate change, piracy and cyber defence addressed by Secretary General at Lloyd’s conference
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen delivered a keynote address on NATO`s role in response to piracy, cyber threats and the security implications of climate change at a conference organised jointly by NATO and Lloyd’s of London on 1 October.
In his speech, the Secretary General said that climate change may have “potentially huge security implications”, and called for a change in our approach.
“We know that there will be more extreme weather events – catastrophic storms and flooding. If anyone doubts the security implications of that – and the political difficulties, for that matter – look at what happened in New Orleans in 2006.”
Mr Rasmussen stressed that these security concerns are not only a military issue, but that traditional security structures will have an important role to play. “I believe that NATO should begin a discussion on how we – NATO as an organisation, and individual Allies as well – can do better to address the security aspects of climate change.”
Lord Peter Levene, Chairman of Lloyd’s, a leading specialist insurance market, opened the conference. “Our sophisticated, industrialised and complex world is under attack from a myriad of determined and deadly threats,” he said. “If we do not take action soon, we will find ourselves, like Gulliver, pinned to the ground and helpless, because we failed to stop a series of incremental changes while we still could.”
Other speakers included Mr Jaak Aaviksoo, Estonian Minister of Defence, and Mr Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization.
The event brought together some 200 high-level representatives from the security and business community.
The Secretary General’s speech and photos from the event are available on NATO’s website.
| Thursday 1 October 2009 |  |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on emerging security risks, Lloyd's of London | ENG | MP3 31.702Kb |
|
|
| Lord Levene, Chairman of Lloyds, adresses the need for business as well as governments to face security challenges such as climate change, cyber risk and piracy. | ||||
| Pen Hadow, a well-known British Polar Explorer, gives a first hand assessment of the dramatic melting of the ice caps in the Arcticand its global impact on our environment. | ||||
| David A. Smith, Chief Executive of Global Futures and Foresight, points out how business needs to adapt to climate change. | ||||
| Nick Mabey, Chief Executive Officer of E3G, explains why the world cannot afford to fail at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December 2009. | ||||
| Jaak Aaviksoo, Minister of Defence of Estonia, explains the wider security implications of today’s cyber world, including the cyber attacks on his country in 2007. | ||||
| Ray Stanton, Global Head of Business Continuity of British Telecom, explains the need for companies to be better prepared for cyber attacks. | ||||
| Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization, outlines the efforts of the International Community to address piracy. | ||||
| Rupert Atkin, Chief Executive of the insurance company Talbot, explains the difficulties for business resulting from piracy. |