Security focus risks overshadowing climate adaptation - but researchers see synergies

In Sweden today, there is a large focus on civil defense and the security situation, which risks overshadowing the urgent climate adaptation work. Preparedness and climate are often handled as separate, parallel tracks, both in the municipalities' organizations and in legislation. The crisis area is governed, among other things, by the act on measures by municipalities and regions before and during extraordinary events in peacetime and heightened preparedness, while climate adaptation is affected by several laws, such as the Planning and Building Act.

- This leads to administrative "silos" where security coordinators and climate strategists rarely integrate their work, says Kerstin Eriksson, who researches combining crisis preparedness and climate adaptation, today at Lund University and previously at the research institute Rise.

The need for collaboration is palpable. An example of how extreme weather requires emergency preparedness can be seen in Gothenburg, where floods can have enormous consequences. Despite a high risk of damage, only one in three Gothenburgers knows how to protect their homes against heavy downpours. The municipality is therefore working with initiatives to increase household awareness of how to protect themselves, a climate adaptation initiative that goes hand in hand with crisis management.

At the same time, we see in our world how energy infrastructure and military security are increasingly combined. In Finland, for example, radar technology is planned in wind turbines to be able to detect drones near the Russian border at an early stage, which is a clear indication of how defense interests and green energy can overlap. Similarly, Finland wants to combine nature conservation and defense by rewilding areas near the Russian border in order to make a land invasion more difficult.

Kerstin Eriksson is currently working in the research project "Household energy resilience in crisis and sustainable transition", which is led by Rise and where researchers from Mittuniversitetet and Chalmers also participate. The project examines how society's information efforts aimed at households can be designed to support all three areas at the same time and strengthen households' resilience.

The research indicates that there are both synergies and goal conflicts. One conflict is that traditional home preparedness is often based on accumulating material resources, i.e. "bunkering" food and gadgets. It can sometimes work against the goals of a resource-efficient and sustainable climate transition. Another example is the handling of heat waves, where the new installation of air conditioning solves a short-term crisis need for households but goes against the climate transition's demand for reduced energy consumption.

On the other hand, there are strong synergies. Being self-sufficient in electricity, for example through local solar cells on the roof, benefits the climate work at the same time as it creates a local independence that is invaluable in a crisis or in the event of war.

- It has to go a little hand in hand. We have limited resources and somehow it's all about preparing for an unknown and unwanted future, says Kerstin Eriksson.

The goal of the current research project is to develop a so-called "resilience box". It is about giving municipalities, authorities and other initiators concrete tips and ideas for how to create campaigns, workshops and courses that strengthen households in a way that benefits both the climate and safety.