Bulgarian Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Ivanov on Wednesday urged NATO to adopt a common approach to address the impact of climate change on military operations.

He made the remarks while opening a two-day workshop jointly organized by the NATO Center of Excellence on Crisis Management for Disaster Response, the U.S. European Command and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"Key environmental and resource constrains, including health risks, climate change, water scarcity and increasing energy needs will further shape the future security environment in areas of concern to NATO and have the potential to significantly affect NATO planning and operations," Ivanov said, citing the NATO Strategic Concept adopted in 2010.

Bulgaria's national security and defence strategies have identified climate change as a key factor with growing impact on the security environment and the strategic context, he said.

"However, in addition to the common understanding of the impact of the climate change demonstrated in the modern strategic documents, a common approach to address this challenge is necessary as well," Ivanov said.

According to him, no single country was able to tackle today's complex problems and challenges, such as climate change and environmental security on its own.

"States should monitor, assess, plan for and mitigate impact from climate change, sharing knowledge, using common approaches and providing for generally valid vulnerability assessments," Ivanov said. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)