Tackling the impacts of climate change through regional cooperation
Project description
Title: Green Central Asia: Transboundary dialogue on climate, environment and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan
Commissioned by: German Federal Foreign Office (AA)
Country: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan
Lead executing agency: Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Central Asian countries
Overall term: 2020 to 2024
Context
Human-drive climate change increasingly represents a risk multiplier, threatening the stability of societies, nation states and entire regions.
It is also causing growing security concerns in Central Asia and Afghanistan, where it is having a particularly severe impact on glaciers and natural resources such as water, land and soil. This threatens food security and water availability, undermining the stability of the entire region. This has prompted the German Federal Foreign Office to launch the regional initiative ‘Green Central Asia’ as part of a preventive and stabilising foreign policy and to support the European Union's Central Asia strategy.
Objective
Conflict prevention and cooperation to address the consequences of climate change are improved in Central Asia.
Approach
The project organises regional dialogue on climate and security in the Aral Sea Basin and thus fosters regional cooperation. The dialogue participants draft a regional climate change adaptation plan, a political document on glacier monitoring as well as on a water-energy mechanism. Through the cooperation, better use should be made of international instruments for security-related environmental and climate policy. Increased willingness to cooperate and mutual trust also serve as the basis for conflict prevention.
The project also builds competencies for science-based data collection and decision-making. Partners in this objective include the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Helmholtz Center Potsdam, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and German-Kazakh University.
The project also promotes coordination and cooperation with other international organisations and stakeholders as well as with German Government financed projects in the field of climate change and security in Central Asia.
Last update: August 2022
