# Building a safer North: Climate security risks, gaps, and opportunities of the Canadian Arctic

Source: https://ras-nsa.ca/en/building-a-safer-north-climate-security-risks-gaps-and-opportunities-of-the-canadian-arctic/
Modified: 2024-08-29

[“What happens in the North impacts the world, and when you look at security issues and climate change, the world is paying attention more than ever,”](https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2023/03/01/indigenous-issues-climate-cooperation-needs-to-continue-with-russia-canadas-gg/) recently noted Canadian Governor-General Mary Simon at an event at the Arktikum Science Centre in Rovaniemi, on February 9th, 2023. Her comments reflected the profound and ongoing effects that Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had on Arctic security, leading to a renewed global focus on the region – a focus which, in Canada, further intensified recently with the [Chinese spy balloon incident](ttps://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/spy-balloon-canada-norad-questions-1.6742695) acting as a reminder of the role that the Canadian Arctic plays in continental defense. [Governor-General Simon’s remarks](https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/navigating-breakup-security-realities-freezing-politics-and-thawing-landscapes-arctic?utm_campaign=pi&utm_medium=email&utm_source=event&emci=9afea599-deae-ed11-994d-00224832eb73&emdi=9c3f3197-e6ae-ed11-994d-00224832eb73&ceid=337714) also mirror how interconnected climate and security realities are, in a region where freezing geopolitics interact with thawing landscapes.

In the Canadian Arctic, which is warming at least [three times](https://climateandsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/A-Climate-Security-Plan-for-Canada_January-2021.pdf) as fast as the rest of the globe, the physical impacts of climate change include permafrost thaw, decreasing snow cover, reducing summer sea ice, and sea-level rise leading to coastal erosion and flooding (in the Beaufort Sea, sea level has been rising by almost [an inch a year over the last two decades](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/040d2b60f134456e8ba428fe940df588)). Climate change also contributes to changes in Canadian Arctic ecosystems -such as [tundra greening](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0688-1) and shifting boreal tree line due to [intensifying boreal wildfires](https://www.arctictoday.com/global-warming-is-changing-canadas-boreal-forest-and-tundra/)– ocean acidification, and increased precipitation.

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a [threat (or risk)-multiplier](https://climateandsecurity.org/2023/01/briefer-climate-change-as-a-threat-multiplier-history-uses-and-future-of-the-concept/#:~:text=The%20term%20was%20coined%20in,to%20contribute%20to%20security%20risks.), as its effects interact with and have the potential to exacerbate pre-existing threats and other drivers of instability to contribute to security risks. In an effort to advance Canada’s awareness of these risks, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service recently published an [analysis](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csis-climate-change-threats-canada-1.6768803) outlining how climate change compounds and accelerates other security issues.

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To keep reading, go to [Vanguard](https://vanguardcanada.com/building-a-safer-north-climate-security-risks-gaps-and-opportunities-of-the-canadian-arctic/).