Press Release — With EU nations deprived of
valuable Russian energy supplies as a result of their stance in
Moscow’s war on
Ukraine, turning to Gulf Arab states could prove risky considering tensions with
Iran and challenges stemming from climate change, the
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said in a statement.
اضافة اعلان
ECFR said visiting fellow, and author of the latest
policy brief, Cinzia Bianco recommended that Europeans should be more involved
to create a new climate for peace, one that promotes environmental cooperation
between Gulf Arab states and Iran.
“The Middle East is one of the regions of the world
most exposed to climate change and desertification,” the statement said,
highlighting parts of Bianco’s policy brief to ECFR — a pan-European
think-tank, which produces independent research for European foreign policy
decision makers.
“The urgent challenges it (the Middle East) faces
include air pollution and sandstorms, temperatures in some areas that exceed a
threshold for human adaptability, and extreme weather events,” it said. “Water
scarcity, long a grave concern, is worsening.”
Yet, the statement noted that Middle Eastern nations
“are moving too slowly to address these common threats to their environmental
and climate security – and have rarely cooperated with one another in these
areas.”
Turning to
energy supplies, the statement pointed out that until recently, Russia supplied
40 percent of the EU’s natural gas imports, and 27 percent of its oil imports.
“But their response to Russia’s all-out invasion of
Ukraine left them scrambling for alternative providers, including
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states,” it said. “The urgency of the situation
prompted Europeans to refocus on hydrocarbons, denting their climate
credentials.”
“Therefore, they need to make substantive diplomatic
efforts and investments in the energy transition, which would be particularly
significant if directed towards GCC states, as some of the world’s leading
hydrocarbons producers,” the statement added.
As such concerns gradually become more
relevant, Bianco suggested that Europeans “should encourage Middle Eastern
policymakers to work together, and should create and support a platform on
which they could do so.”
“This would advance Europeans’ climate agenda, and
signal their commitment to tackling climate change as a global problem, and it
could also reinforce the trend towards de-escalation between Gulf Arab states
and Iran,” Bianco wrote.
Bianco listed the
following key recommendations:
• Facilitate environmental
diplomacy: Europeans should work to reinforce regionally owned diplomatic
processes that have developed in the past year, especially by linking disparate
initiatives and prioritizing consistency and the establishment of a coherent,
sustainable, and practical dialogue.
• Promote joint scientific
research: Joint scientific research would be especially beneficial in areas
such as air and water pollution, rain enhancement, desalination, and
sandstorms. Research into problems and solutions in these areas may be
politically more effective in the region if it is conducted by Middle Eastern
states rather than countries further afield.
• Pursue opportunities for
strategic investment and capacity building: Europeans have a clear interest in
supporting the green transition in GCC states, Iraq, and
Iran. In many ways,
this will require the active involvement of the European private sector and
even seed funding from the EU. In line with the European Green Deal and the Joint
Communication, the EU should organize a Green Business Forum that brings
together private sector representatives from both Europe and the Gulf.
The statement explained that Middle Eastern states’
efforts at de-escalation “will continue to be fragile for so long as they are
unable to have difficult conversations with one another about their
geopolitical and security concerns”.
“In this environment, a platform for dialogue on
climate and environmental security may be one of the few politically feasible
ways to strengthen and sustain channels for regional diplomacy,” it said.
It said that Europeans “are aware that it is in
their interests to promote de-escalation between Iran and its Arab neighbors”.
“This could strengthen the EU’s position in an
increasingly multipolar region, and help it fulfil its commitments to climate
and environmental security,” the statement concluded.
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