Regional co-operation strategy on climate change and security in Central Asia’s high mountain areas

Central Asia's high mountains are critical to the well-being of communities throughout the region and beyond. At the same time, the area is already facing significant climate-related security risks with impacts on the livelihoods of rural mountain and downstream communities that are dependent on agriculture, pastures, and forests. As these risks are shared across the region, they also provide entry points for co-operation to improve livelihoods, stability and resilience in the context of a changing climate.  

On 12 September, the OSCE in partnership with adelphi research published the report on the Regional co-operation strategy on climate change and security in Central Asia’s high mountain areas aiming to strengthen co-operation among Central Asian countries to address climate-related security risks in shared high mountain areas.

Based on previous OSCE activities and following a two-year regional consultation process on climate change and security in Central Asia involving government, academic and civil society representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the strategy presents concrete ideas for joint co-operation measures.

The strategy outlines thematic priorities for co-operation in the areas of:

• Livelihood security in the agriculture, livestock and forestry sectors;
• Climate-induced mobility;
• Glacial melt and its impact on natural resource management; and
• Early warning and disaster risk governance.

Furthermore, the strategy contains a set of project concepts to jointly address climate-related security risks in the region, serving as a starting point for the development of concrete action for climate adaptation across Central Asia.

The strategy will guide the next steps of the project activities in Central Asia that will include the implementation of selected transboundary pilot projects.

This strategy was prepared within the framework of the OSCE extra-budgetary project “Strengthening responses to security risks from climate change in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia”, which is implemented by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) in partnership with adelphi research and in close collaboration with the OSCE Field Operations.

The project is funded by Andorra, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States. The project contributes to the implementation of the various provisions of the OSCE Ministerial Council Decision No.3/21 on “Strengthening co-operation to address the challenges caused by climate change” that was adopted on 3 December 2021 in Stockholm.