A webinar concluded the first phase of a OSCE project co-financed by the Czech Republic dealing with the effects of climate change on security in the region of South-Eastern Europe
26.02.2021 / 08:49 | Aktualizováno: 01.03.2021 / 11:05
On 23 February 2021, a webinar organized by the OSCE was held with the participation of more than a hundred people at the end of the first phase of an extra-budgetary project addressing the security implications of climate change in the region of South-Eastern Europe. This project aims to increase regional understanding of climate change as a security challenge and to strengthen regional and cross-border cooperation in reducing or eliminating security risks associated with ongoing climate change.
In 2020, the Czech Republic provided a voluntary contribution of CZK 1.23 million to this project through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. By deciding to finance the project within the OSCE, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks to effectively strengthen its activities in the context of climate change impacts in the region, which has long been one of the Czech Republic's foreign priorities, while building on its efforts to strengthen its engagement with relevant multilateral organizations. In this context, the Czech Republic joined the OSCE Group of Friends of the Environment in the autumn of 2019, and in May 2020 it joined the UN Group of Friends of Climate and Security.
In addition to OSCE senior officials (OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, OSCE Coordinator for Economic and Environmental Activities Vuk Žugić), the webinar was also attended by Naser Nuredini, Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning of Northern Macedonia, or the Director General of the German company adephi, which cooperates wut the OSCE on this project. During their speeches, the regional coordinators from the countries where the project is taking place, informed about the wide involvement of a number of regional representatives in the consultation process of this project, 65% of whom were women.
Other countries co-financing the project are Andorra, Austria, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Norway.
More detailed information about the webinar and the project itself is available on the OSCE website.
