3 March 2008
Climate change is not merely an environmental concern, it could also present "serious security risks", according to the European Union's foreign policy chiefs.Tackling climate change is central to Europe's preventive security policy, says a paper drafted by the bloc's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
UK business daily the Financial Times and its German sister paper, FT Deutschland obtained a copy of the paper's contents in advance of an EU leaders summit later this month where the issue is to be discussed.The paper highlights seven key concerns: diminishing water supplies, falling harvests, increased migration, expanding energy resource competition, tussles over newly opened up opportunities in the Arctic as the ice there melts, disappearing coastlines and islands that sink beneath the waves as sea levels rise. Of particular concern is the growing threat of so-called water wars in the Middle East."Water supply in Israel might fall by 60 per cent over this century," reads the paper, which argues that battles over access to water in the region in turn affect the EU's energy security.The paper also points to concerns that reduced harvests in the Middle East and Turkey will also add to the region's instability.
