Building transdisciplinary solutions at the first ever Climate Security Festival

Building transdisciplinary solutions at the first ever Climate Security Festival

In September 2023, the first ever Climate Security Festival was organized in Helsinki, Finland. The event gathered close to 100 participants including researchers, civil society actors, climate security experts, artists, activists, students and others at the Finnish Meteorological Institute for two days.

The idea of the festival was to bring people together and to enable discussing the risks related to climate change in an open and equal space. The two-day program was built around parallel workshop sessions, with the aim of strengthening and fostering cooperation between different sectors. The workshop topics were: 1) War and its effects on climate and the environment 2) Climate, death & (mental) wellbeing and 3) Who owns the climate security discussion? In addition, the festival included two keynote talks, joint discussion, a transdisciplinary poster session, artistic performances and side program; a safety walk, a photography exhibition and a collaboration movie screening and panel discussion in collaboration with Finland’s biggest film festival. The event was organized in person and participants were encouraged to leave aside their electronic devices, titles and prejudice.

Based on the encouraging results and feedback from participants, some key findings from the festival can be pointed out and utilized in building sustainable collaborations and co-creating climate solutions in geosciences and beyond. The results indicate, for example, the importance of;

• embracing a truly transdisciplinary approach (including non-academic methods)
• putting the work in building safer spaces for discussing ethical, fundamental and even painful topics in the context of climate change and geosciences
• involving artists, art institutions and artistic methods in climate security related discussions and action in non-performative roles
• expanding ownership of the discussion on climate change related risks beyond ‘traditional’ research and security/foreign political frameworks

Results are presented briefly with visual materials from the festival, workshop proceedings and participant feedback.

The festival was organized by the Safer Climate network (Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, University of Helsinki) in collaboration with the Committee of 100 in Finland. The next festival will be organized in 2024.