EU seeks to up assistance for CA countries' environment programs

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

The European Union intends to increase its assistance for environment programs of the Central Asian countries.

This remark was made by Yuri Sterk, the head of the EU delegation in Uzbekistan, at a meeting of the EU - Central Asian working group on environmental management and climate change held in Tashkent on July 8.

"Central Asia is a region which is faced with global environmental issues. Today we are holding consultations with the countries of the region on the development of a new regional environmental program of the EU," he said.

Sterk also noted that specific parameters and the regional countries' offers received as a result of the meeting will be taken into account when developing a new program.

The new regional environmental program of the EU on Central Asia (EURECA-II) is expected to be adopted in October in Milan at a meeting of representatives of the governments of Central Asian countries and the EU.

The budget of the EURECA-I program, covering 2012-2015, amounted to 9.2 million euros. The program included several components: strengthening regional cooperation and partnership with the EU in the field of water management and conservation of forest and bio diversity, conducting environmental monitoring, increasing public awareness in environmental matters.

In late June, the EU adopted a new program of cooperation with the countries of Central Asia for 2014-2020, which envisages an increase of assistance by 1.5 times compared to the previous seven years of the program - up to 1.068 billion euros.

The working group on environmental management and climate change operates within the EU-Central Asia platform on cooperation in environment and water resources fields.

Landlocked Central Asia is home to two major rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, as well as two inland seas, the Caspian and Aral. However, water resources in the region are disputed. Massive irrigation systems were developed in the past to sustain water-intensive crops such as cotton, wheat and rice in the steppes and deserts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. These systems have caused Central Asia’s largest environmental disaster – the drying up of Aral Sea – and they have the potential to further threaten the livelihoods of Central Asia’s population.

In Central Asia, climate change has moved from being a purely environmental and development issue to a problem of national and international security. Failures to adapt to climate change, such as decreased precipitation, glacial melting or heat waves, can lead to societal instability and may evolve and exacerbate conflicts or multiply threats. The increased likelihood of prolonged drought means that farming communities need techniques or crops that rely on lower water use. For example, increased vegetation around water courses prevents erosion and minimizes the effects of floods.

About 15-20 international organizations have provided assistance in water management since the early 1990s. Assessments of these projects have revealed that the potential for cooperation and dialogue is great, but more coordination is required.

Experts believe that the EU together with European countries such as Finland, which has been an active participant in water management initiatives, can play a positive role in fostering cooperation on environment and security through supporting capacity for cooperation and providing models of cooperation on specific areas, such as, for example, dam safety. The EU and member states need to support an enhanced understanding of climate change as a security challenge in the context of the wider Eastern European neighborhood (Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia). This can be achieved by building the capacity of policy makers and the local community to respond in an effective and timely manner to diverse climate change challenges.