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 and adelphi have embarked on the follow-up project “Strengthening responses to security risks from climate change in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia” in 2020. The aims of the overall project are to:

1. Enhance the understanding of how climate-related security risks impact South-Eastern Europe, South Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
2. Increase co-operation among regional stakeholders to jointly address climate-related security risks.
3. Increase awareness and capacities for an integrated approach on climate change and security among main stakeholders.

In this context, adelphi supported the OSCE through various activities, including:

• Assessing climate and security risks and mapping climate-security hotspots in South-Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia through participatory methodologies.
• Working with regional, national and local stakeholders to draft scoping studies aimed at assessing the current context of shared climate-related security challenges in selected hotspots, as well as at collecting and developing ideas for co-operation activities in these areas. 
• Organising and implementing dialogue and consultation events in South-Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia to discuss shared climate-security topics and hotspots, and identify and prioritise transboundary co-operation opportunities to address climate-security challenges in the regions.
• Supporting the implementation of pilot projects to address climate-related security risks at the hotspot level, for example focusing on wildfire risk prevention and management, illegal logging, sustainable livelihoods and human mobility. 
• Supporting awareness-raising and capacity building activities for youth, field practitioners and civil society organisations in the project's regions.
• Developing indicators and tools for monitoring and evaluating the impact of the project's activities on supporting co-operation to address climate-related security risks in the project's regions.

adelphi also supported the mainstreaming of a gender and inclusion lens throughout the project's activities, as well as the dissemination of the project's results and lessons learned in key international fora such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's 28th and 29th Conference of Parties in 2023 and 2024, respectively.