Athens, 29 May 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear guests from abroad,

My Friends,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Athens Concert Hall and the Conference on Climate Change and Human Security.

Recently, a number of international events have taken place on the subject of the environment and climate change.

But the relationship between climate change and human security – though very important – has not yet received the attention it deserves.

This is perhaps the first time it is being discussed on an international level, in the presence of so many academics, scientists and representatives of countries and international organizations who are looking at this issue.

As you already know, this Conference is the culmination of the Greek Chairmanship of the Human Security Network – a Chairmanship that gave Greece and the Foreign Ministry a framework within which to point up the relationship between climate change and human security, and to conduct a sincere, informed international dialogue. This dialogue is an intrinsic part of the broader discussion and negotiations going on globally with regard to the post-Kyoto era. These negotiations will take us to Copenhagen in 2009, where we hope to hammer out a new protocol for confronting climate change – a new agreement that will be truly global this time.

Global warming cannot be faced by any single country or isolated group of countries. Reaching and honouring a global agreement requires universal participation and a commitment from every one of us.

Any discussion about, or negotiations on, how to face and avert climate change must take certain facts into account.

First, that climate change is the result of the long-term emission of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide – that build up in the atmosphere, where they remain for decades. Perhaps more than a century.

So, to be fair, we must admit that there are two dimensions to the contribution of each country to this problem: the ongoing dimension and the historical.

Whether we like it or not, all countries have not contributed equally to the creation of this problem.

Whether we like it or not, most citizens of planet Earth have never enjoyed – and are not enjoying as we speak – a western standard of living. So they have every reason to consider it their inviolable right to have the potential to escape poverty and get their fair share of industrialisation and development – the creation of wealth.

But there is a second fact.

Although climate change affects both the rich and the poor, it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way or to the same extent.

Geographical position and certain other parameters – economic in the main – render some countries, regions and population groups more vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. For example, coastal countries with sea-level plains, countries bordering on deserts, sparsely populated countries with major energy needs for domestic transport, and countries that rely on a single crop are at greater risk.

The third fact is that the ability to confront the consequences of climate change varies from place to place; from country to country and region to region. A coastal country in the developing world with a population living near or under the poverty line does not have the same means at its disposal – or the same reflexes – as a coastal country in the developed world. Not just for averting and dealing with climate change, but also for adapting to the new state of affairs brought about climate change.

Bearing in mind these aspects of the climate change problem, we – as Greece – have identified three different levels of participation in the negotiations and in confronting this new challenge that looms before us.

The first level is the national level.

Each country must honour the commitments it has made.

For reasons that have to do with its development model, Greece’s hand in the global warming problem is relatively small – currently and historically.

This fact does not soothe our conscience or allow us to relax our efforts.

To the contrary, it enables us to step out in front and participate dynamically in the global effort to confront climate change. The Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works articulates and coordinates the effort to undertake initiatives and meet objectives on a national level. The primary goal – from which we have never deviated and will never deviate in the future – is the honouring of our commitments vis-à-vis the Kyoto Protocol and our European obligations, the latter of which we undertook at the EU Summit Meeting this past March.

The second, very important level concerns the shaping of European policy – on the level of the competent Council of Environment Ministers, as well as on the level of heads of state and government – regarding major strategic commitments and decisions.  In March, as I said, the leaders of the EU member states decided on a unilateral commitment to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, with the prospect of significantly greater reductions by 2050. Through its Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis, Greece was among the countries that stood openly before the Council in support of this unilateral commitment.

Admittedly, the rationale behind this policy – on the part of the EU – was less than obvious.

Why should one unilaterally offer its own contribution when difficult negotiations are in progress; particularly given that this contribution, on its own, will not suffice to resolve the problem? I remind you that Europe is responsible for less than 25% of global emissions.

But this decision – beyond the economic and ecological arguments on which it was based – is also of great importance symbolically.

·       The EU is exercising a strong policy and exerting moral pressure on other developed countries to take the same path.

·       This policy sets the environment firmly among the Union’s strategic priorities and is proof positive of the EU’s sincere good intentions.

·       It quells the suspicion that many developing countries feel when they are discussing climate change with the western world.

·       It establishes a firm political framework for the Copenhagen negotiations.

The third level – which is closely linked to today’s event, as well as to obligations of the Foreign Ministry, which is responsible for development assistance and cooperation – is Greece’s participation in:

·       enhancing the capability of less developed countries to adapt to climate change, and

·       mass transfer of green technology (in many different technologies) to the developing world; technology that will help the developing world to adopt a green development model for achieving development goals without exacerbating global climate change now and in the future.

Given the disproportionate severity of the consequences of climate change for less developed countries whose contribution to the problem has been minimal, Greece has already earmarked a portion of its assistance for the funding of adaptation and know-how transfer programmes.

And this is where we are trying to focus the attention of the other developed countries within the European Union, as well as within the framework of an international forum for consultation with geographical representation as diverse as that of the Human Security Network.

The notion of human security, which the Network promotes, supplements rather that gainsays the notion of security. The anthropocentric dimension is focused on the protection of populations from modern threats that know no borders. Without a doubt, climate change is one of these threats.

First of all, because we cannot predict with any accuracy the extent and magnitude of its impact. Disasters that dwarf individual emergency relief and rescue mechanisms occur frequently. We experienced this in Greece and southern Europe last summer, with the catastrophic wildfires.

We saw it recently in Myanmar, though scientists cannot say with certainty to what extent this disaster was a result of climate change.

Whatever the case, climate change – with its short- and long-term consequences; desertification, for example – is a new challenge.

It is a challenge to be added to those of poverty and rising food and fuel prices.

The combination of climate change and these other threats is heightening fears – for example – of a long-term food crisis in the future. It is a near certainty that we will not be able to counter such crises with humanitarian and food aid as we know it.

For all the above reasons, we felt we had to take direct action and initiatives towards informing the public, raising awareness and shaping policy. And these initiatives have that much more value – and reach that much broader an audience – through an international network.

This value was further increased through collaboration with international organizations and Greek and international scientific agencies, such as Unicef, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, UN University, the International Institute for Environment and Development and ELIAMEP. This collaboration produced four policy papers that will be presented and discussed at the Conference and at the meeting of the Network members. Three of these four papers focus on an equal number of vulnerable population groups in the developing world: children, women, and people forced to migrate by climate change.

The fourth  policy paper is more comprehensive and concerns climate change, human security and development cooperation and assistance.

Moreover, in collaboration with international organizations and agencies such as the UNEP’s Mediterranean Action Plan, Unicef, the International Organization for Migration and the Austrian Foreign Ministry, we organized events in Athens, New York, Bali, Geneva and Vienna. We focussed on the same groups that are discussed in the policy papers. Our goal was to point up, on a global level, the disproportionate impact of climate change on these groups, and to enrich the policy papers with the conclusions of discussions.

As you will see from the policy papers and the presentations of the esteemed speakers at this two-day Conference, we had good reason to focus on these groups.

Children, precisely because they are still growing, are more vulnerable to climate change and its consequences. Problems like malaria, malnutrition and respiratory diseases – which will be aggravated by climate change – are harder on children than on adults.

For example, an increase in temperature facilitates the spreading of malaria over a wider geographical area, and malaria already kills a million victims a year. Eighty percent of those victims are children under the age of 5.

In addition to the children, women in the developing world are also impacted disproportionately by climate change.

With limited access to the resources and knowledge they need to protect themselves, and working either in agriculture or as casual labourers, women are affected more than men in their day-to-day lives. But even those who work at home, caring for children and the aged, suffer disproportionately.

They also have a special potential for contributing to efforts against climate change; potential that is as yet untapped.

The migration of populations due to climate change is a factor that impacts countries of origin as well destination countries.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that some 24 million people have already left their hearths due to environment-related factors.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that some 200 million people will have migrated by 2050.

Mass migrations – the permanence of which is unforeseeable – deprive countries of origin of vital human capital. At the same time, the migrants’ need for access to natural resources like arable land and water in destination countries may spark violence and conflicts.

All of this makes it clear that strengthening the ability of developing countries to adapt to climate change is a path that runs through the adaptation of development assistance policy itself. Climate change is yet another factor that must be taken under serious consideration in the planning of international development assistance and cooperation, particularly with regard to less developed countries and developing small island nations.

In order to achieve this, we need a comprehensive approach to development, security and human security.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you for being here today. Particularly the speakers and the delegations of HSN member countries who have come from far away. I would like to thank the scientists, the agencies and the organizations that collaborated on the drawing up of the policy papers and the organization of events.

Finally, I would like to thank those people at the Foreign Ministry who worked so hard for the Greek Chairmanship to be successful.

I wish you every success with this Conference.

It is my great pleasure to declare the opening of the proceedings of this Conference.

Thank you.