Climate In/Security -- Transatlantic Climate Breakfast, DC Climate Week Edition
Join us for a DC Climate Week edition of the Transatlantic Climate Breakfast, featuring Erin Sikorsky, Director of the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), and Kira Vinke, head of the Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
Security paradigms increasingly shape both geopolitical and domestic debates in Europe and the United States, they are also redefining the terms of climate policy.
Rather than displacing climate action, this shift is opening new pathways for climate to remain central to how governments understand and respond to global crises. At the same time, the very meaning of “security” is expanding beyond traditional notions of military and geopolitical stability to encompass food security, human security, energy systems, and the resilience of societies under environmental stress.
This informal breakfast conversation brings together two leading voices working at the intersection of climate and security—Erin Sikorsky and Kira Vinke—to reflect on how these evolving paradigms are shaping transatlantic approaches, and where they may open space for more durable and coordinated climate action.
Erin Sikorsky is Director of the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), and the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS). She is an expert in geopolitical risk, strategic forecasting, and the national security implications of climate change, particularly the nexus of geopolitical competition and climate change. Previously, Erin served as Deputy Director of the Strategic Futures Group on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in the United States, where she co-authored the quadrennial Global Trends report and led the US intelligence community’s environmental and climate security analysis. She was the founding chair of the Climate Security Advisory Council, a Congressionally mandated group designed to facilitate coordination between the intelligence community and US government scientific agencies. Prior to her position on the National Intelligence Council, she worked as a senior analyst in the US intelligence community for over a decade, leading teams examining conflict and instability risks in Africa and the Middle East, and won the National Intelligence Analysis Award.
Dr. Kira Vinke is deputy research director and head of the Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She is also a member of the Advisory Board to the Federal Government for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding, which she co-chaired from 2018 to January 2025. From 2014-2022, she worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Before joining DGAP, she headed the East Africa Peru India Climate Capacities (EPICC) project there. Vinke has been a member of the advisory board of Germany’s Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS) since 2022. She is also a member of the board of trustees of the German Climate Foundation (Deutsche KlimaStiftung) and of the World Vision Deutschland e.V. In addition, Vinke is a member of the German section of “Aktion gegen den Hunger” (Action Against Hunger), and the Development Service and Humanitarian Aid Committee of “Brot für die Welt” (bread for the world).
At the “Climate Breakfast” series, hosted by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Washington, DC, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation USA & Canada, participants can exchange views with experts in the US and Europe on various challenges in the climate and energy field. The goal is to foster a resilient network of transatlantic climate experts.
DC Climate Week is not responsible for this event. It is organized by the organizing group, and being listed on the DCCW calendar is not an endorsement of content or partners.