Strengthening responses to security risks from climate change in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been working on the security implications of climate change since 2007. In addition to providing a platform for political dialogue on climate-related security risks, the OSCE together with its partners has implemented activities on the ground in order to assess and address potential security risks stemming from climate change.These activities range from participatory assessments to the development and implementation of transboundary adaptation strategies.

Building on this work, the OSCE, in partnership with adelphi, has embarked in 2020 on a follow-up project titled “Strengthening responses to security risks from climate change in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia”. The aims of the project are:

• To identify and map potential climate-security hotspots in the South-Eastern Europe region using a participatory methodology, including a series of online formats.
• To develop and implement climate-security risk reduction and risk management strategies for selected transboundary hotspots in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.
• To raise awareness on the linkages between climate change and security, especially by targeting policy makers, parliamentarians, civil society and the media.

In the first phase of the project, adelphi is supporting the OSCE by facilitating the participatory climate-security risk assessment for South Eastern Europe, supporting the organisation and implementation of dialogue events in South Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the identification of possible transboundary adaptation measures, and providing a briefing for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.