Our Story

Our Vision

CCASCOE aims to be an internationally recognized hub of expertise on climate change and security for military and civilian experts and decision-makers.

We work with governmental and non-governmental organizations, think tanks, academia and industry to stimulate innovative solutions, encourage closer collaboration among NATO Allies and partners and across different types of organizations, gather and streamline knowledge and expertise in one dedicated hub, and increase the awareness of decision-makers and the broader public on the pressing need of taking concrete actions to preserve Allied security.

To learn more about NATO-accredited Centres of Excellence, read the Centres of Excellence Catalogue for 2024.

Our Mission

CCASCOE’s efforts support the implementation of the NATO Climate Change and Security Action Plan and contribute to NATO’s overall military readiness, deterrence and defence posture. To achieve this, we work on four fronts:

  • Increasing Allied awareness of the security implications of climate change
  • Adapting to the impact of climate change across NATO and beyond
  • Mitigating NATO’s impact on climate change while preserving and strengthening our military effectiveness and interoperability
  • Conducting outreach and strengthening cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders.

If you are interested in supporting us in our mission, we will be pleased to hear from you. There are many ways that we can collaborate to increase our common security in the face of the challenges that will be brought by climate change and to mitigate our own impact.

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Signing ceremony for CCASCOE at the 2023 NATO Vilnius Summit

Publication

Advancing Climate Security Together cover image

The purpose of this publication is to celebrate the establishment of the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence, highlighting its mission to advance understanding and action on climate-related security challenges.

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History

Corporal Alisa Strelley, Canadian Armed Forces Photo

At the NATO Summit in Brussels in 2021, Allies adopted the NATO Climate Change and Security Action Plan, recognizing that climate change is one of the defining challenges of our times. In response to one of the recommendations of this Plan, 12 NATO Allies came together to establish the Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE). Canada, the framework nation, was joined in this effort by the sponsoring nations Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Türkiye and the United Kingdom. Representatives of each nation signed the founding document at the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023 and the Centre opened in Montreal, Quebec, in the fall of the same year. On 28 May 2024, CCASCOE was formally accreditated as a NATO Centre of Excellence, officially joining the family of 30 NATO Centres of Excellence across the Alliance.

Climate change will have severe impacts on Allied security and collective defence. It acts as a threat multiplier by increasing instability, geostrategic competition, insecurity and conflict. The resilience and efficiency of our military infrastructure and equipment and the way that we conduct operations will be affected by changes in climate that include extreme temperatures, changes in water acidity, air density, and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), thawing permafrost, sea level rise, changes in precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events. In addition, drought, flood, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity already severyly impact populations in some regions of the world, particularly in the global south, and cause famine and loss of land and livelihoods and intensify forced migration. This insecurity can also increase social and political instability and create a breeding ground for terrorism.

Our Organization

(Click the chart to view PDF version)

Leadership

Mathieu Bussières, Director of the CCASCOE

Mathieu Bussières

Director

Mr. Mathieu Bussières joined the Canadian Department of National Defence in 2004.

Biography
Dr. Ulrich Seidenberger, Deputy Director of the CCASCOE

Dr. Ulrich Seidenberger

Deputy Director

Dr. Seidenberger has been appointed by the German Federal President as German Ambassador for the Climate and Security Nexus.

Biography
François Tinjod, Chief of Staff at the CCASCOE

François Tinjod

Chief of Staff

Colonel Francois Tinjod has been serving in the French Forces for more than 34 years.

Biography

Branch Heads

Kim Vetting, acting head of the Outreach and Engagement branch

Kim Vetting

Acting Head of Outreach and Engagement Branch

Biography
Dr. Katie Woodward, head of the Research and Lessons Learned Branch at CCASCOE

Dr. Katie Woodward

Head of Research, Analysis and Lessons Learned Branch

Biography
Gianfranco Pino, head of the Standardization, Concept Development and Experimentation Branch

Gianfranco Pino, (ITA) Lt. Col. (OF-4)

Head of Standardization, Concept Development and Experimentation Branch

Biography

Justin Tynes

Head of Support and Security Branch

Biography

Contact us.

For more information about our work or if you want to collaborate, please contact us.

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Mathieu Bussières, Director of the CCASCOE

Mr. Mathieu Bussières

Mr. Mathieu Bussières joined the Canadian Department of National Defence 2004.

From 2020 to 2023, Mr. Bussières was the Defence Counsellor at the Joint Canadian Delegation to NATO managing files related to NATO’s defence and deterrence policy and defence planning. From 2016 to 2020, Mr. Bussières was program manager for the Directorate of Strategic Coordination and Outreach. In this role, he participated in the development, implementation and management of several outreach programs with external defence and security experts. He was also overseeing the Policy Officer Recruitment Program (PORP). Mr. Bussières was Deputy Director in the Directorate of Western Hemisphere Policy from 2015 to 2016, leading a team providing advice on national matters, and managing a range of issues related to the Canada-US bilateral defence relations, including the management of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD) and interactions with NORAD. Mr. Bussières also held several positions within the Policy Group, the Canadian Joint Operational Command (CJOC) and at NATO Headquarters on a wide variety of files, including defence policy, operational planning, bilateral and multilateral defence relationship, and related to Canadian Armed Forces operations at home and abroad.

Mr. Bussières holds a Master's Degree in Political Science and is fluent in both French and English.

Dr. Ulrich Seidenberger, Deputy Director of the CCASCOE

Dr. Ulrich Seidenberger

Ulrich Seidenberger is Deputy Director and has been appointed by the German Federal President as German Ambassador for the Nexus on Climate Change and Security for his interaction with International Organizations and conferences. Dr. Seidenberger has been serving in the German Diplomatic Service for 32 years.

In previous assignments he served as German Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN Organizations based in Rome (WFP, FAO, IFAD) from 2018 to 2022. He was elected President of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme in 2020. He also served as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva from 2015 to 2018. Dr. Seidenberger was then elected Chairperson of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2016 for one year. Other previous assignments comprised a term as a political Counsellor for the U.N. Security Council at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in New York from 2002 to 2005, as well as bilateral postings to Jamaica, Romania and Finland.

Before entering the German Foreign Service, he trained as a lawyer at the universities in Munich, Lausanne/Switzerland and Würzburg, where he was awarded his ph.D. (Dr. juris utriusque).

François Tinjod, Chief of Staff at the CCASCOE

François Tinjod

Colonel Francois Tinjod has been serving the French Forces for more than 34 years. He held managing positions in various domains like modeling and simulation or the technical development of petroleum products where he supported the NATO single fuel policy. He conducted or actively participated to several projects transforming the organization of the support of the forces and the information technology.

As a regiment deputy commander, he was responsible for environmental protection and performance management of energy military specialists’ education and operational training. During deployments in the frame of multinational operations, he has been responsible for energy supply of the forces at the theater of operations level. He has been an actor of the implementation of process management into the Operational Energy Service and obtaining ISO 9001 certification.

He also contributed to the first action of the energy transition process in the French Ministry of Defence by enabling the acquisition of sustainable energy. In the frame of this transition, he conducted the development of the multi-year budget 2024-2030 for operational energy. He is engaged in supporting energy transition for enhancing energy security and mitigating greenhouse gases emissions.

Kim Vetting, acting head of the Outreach and Engagement branch

Kim Vetting

Kim MacLachlan Vetting joined the CCASCOE in 2024, and currently serves as head of the Outreach and Engagement branch. He is on a two-year sabbatical from his civilian job as staff member at NATO's military headquarters, SHAPE, in Belgium, where he has worked on strategic outreach in the J9 CIMIC branch since 2014.

Aside from his NATO work with CCASCOE and SHAPE, he is a Danish Army Reservist, assigned to the Danish Joint Arctic Command (AKO) in Nuuk Greenland, where he works as head of the liaison officers team, a position he has held since 2019.

Educated as a political scientist from Denmark and Germany, he has spent most of his career in development environments, among others eight years in Kosovo working for the UN, OSCE and Danish Refugee Council, and shorter civilian deployments to Iraq with NATO and Afghanistan with the UN, before taking up the assignment with NATO from 2014.

Dr. Katie Woodward, head of the Research and Lessons Learned Branch at CCASCOE

Dr. Katie Woodward

Dr. Katie Woodward is the Deputy Head of Research, Analysis and Lessons at the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE) in Montreal, Canada. A Fellow of the UK MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Katie’s specialism is in psychology, human security, terrorism, and the social and behavioural impacts of climate change. Katie previously led the UK’s Behavioural Science Influence Programme and the Support and Sustainability Science and Technology Programme, both of which provided critical research shaping the MOD’s approach to security and sustainability.

Gianfranco Pino, head of the Standardization, Concept Development and Experimentation Branch

Lieutenant Colonel Gianfranco Pino

Lieutenant Colonel Gianfranco Pino is a senior officer in the Italian Armed Forces – Carabinieri, currently serving as the representative of the Italian Defence General Staff at the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE), where he heads the Standardization, Concept Development, and Experimentation Branch.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Legal Sciences from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, two second-cycle degrees in Law and in Domestic and International Security Sciences from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and postgraduate Master’s degrees in Criminology and Intelligence. He also completed an advanced course in Security Studies at LUISS Guido Carli University.

After joining the Carabinieri in 2004 and attending the NCO School in Velletri (Rome), he was commissioned as an officer in 2007 upon graduating from the Military Academy of Modena. Over his career, he has held key command and operational roles in Italy and abroad. He served as a Platoon Leader in the NATO KFOR mission in Kosovo and later commanded several Carabinieri companies across Italy. Notably, he led an Investigation Team in the Province of Palermo, the Organized Crime Section of the Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale (ROS) in Milan, and the Operations Section of the Milan Provincial Carabinieri Command.

His service has earned him several honors, including the title of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and the NATO Balkans Medal.

Lieutenant Colonel Pino brings recognized expertise in military leadership, counter-organized crime, and international operations, with a solid record of responsibility across both tactical and strategic levels.

Justin Tynes

Justin Tynes, Branch Head, Support and Security is from Ottawa, Ontario and has been with the Government of Canada since 2017. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Public Affairs and Communications from Carleton University. In his spare time, he enjoys karaoke, playing ball hockey, and going to concerts.