YouTube transcript
Video ID: bg3YynsfYNk
Language: en-GB
Captions: authored or unspecified

[0:12] It’s been nearly a decade since climate change first came on the agenda
[0:16] of people in the foreign policy and security establishment,
[0:20] so people are aware that climate change poses a security threat.
[0:25] The problem now is that they don't quite know what to do about it.
[0:31] The reality is that climate impacts
[0:34] are not manifested in terms of new problems
[0:37] they really come to you in problems you already know.
[0:40] Those problems will be more intense, they will happen more frequently and affect more people.
[0:45] Climate change is already manifesting itself
[0:49] in a variety of impacts across the world.
[0:52] From extreme weather events, sea level rise, droughts,
[0:58] climate change is usually thought of as a threat multiplier.
[1:02] Climate change is one of the pressures that interacts with, for example,
[1:06] other pressures such as economic growth
[1:11] and population growth, rising urbanization, rising inequality,
[1:15] and together these pressures can push states towards fragility and threaten their stability.
[1:29] This challenge touches so many different aspects,
[1:32] whether its energy supply to water scarcity
[1:36] to migration, to engineering,
[1:40] so it's really mapping the problem
[1:42] and then mapping the resources you have to deal with it.
[1:46] I think probably the main challenge is try to integrate policies;
[1:49] you know you cannot do security thing on one side,
[1:53] transportation on the other,
[1:55] energy on the third one and then agriculture.
[2:00] You have to consider all these policies together.
[2:04] We have unresolved trans boundary
[2:07] water management issues in Central Asia.
[2:10] And of course we have to find the solution
[2:13] on how to deal with water deficit
[2:16] because of climate change
[2:19] and the irrational use of water resources in Central Asia.
[2:24] When we are talking about climate policy
[2:26] we are not talking only about high policy level,
[2:29] about diplomats in New York or Geneva
[2:31] or about American convention of United Nations.
[2:35] Each citizen can contribute into climate change adaptation policy.
[2:39] We should create the balance
[2:42] between economic development and more environmentally protection.
[2:46] Only finding the nexus for this balance
[2:50] will lead to the achievement of
[2:53] the climate change sustainable development.
[3:04] The method of the OSCE is based on prevention largely,
[3:08] so it is important for the OSCE
[3:12] to look at the issues around climate change
[3:15] in a broad perspective; the perspective of sustainable development.
[3:19] In many ways, the OSCE is already addressing issues
[3:22] related to climate change.
[3:25] We are dealing with water issues in many areas,
[3:28] for instance in Central Asia.
[3:30] We’re dealing with cooperation in addressing countries
[3:34] or in supporting countries affected by environmental disasters.
[3:38] We are actively engaged
[3:43] in establishing the so called Aarhus centres,
[3:47] which are centres that do focus on environmental issues.
[3:51] There are going to be many challenges in the OSCE community
[3:55] and an organization that can bring them all together to the table
[3:59] to work about designing those solutions,
[4:02] and then going on to the ground to implement them.
[4:05] That’s invaluable in what we need to do in the world today.
[4:08] I think the OSCE can play a very important part
[4:12] as an important convener of their member states
[4:16] and other important international organizations
[4:20] and to keep really climate change in security
[4:24] high on the political agenda.
[4:26] And advance the discourse,
[4:28] the global discourse around climate change and security