Impact of climate change in Southeast Europe; adaptation policies, environmental and human security, and normative resolutions

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of climate change in the Balkans on the different macro components of human and environmental security: the environmental dimension, the state's adaptation policies, and crisis management for the signified imperatives of mitigation describing impacts on different divisions offering normative resolutions. A comprehensive analysis of climate change in the Western Balkans has identified human health, security, and quality of life as highly vulnerable to natural disasters and weather changes. The agricultural sector, forestry, water management, free-flowing rivers, and Adriatic sea tourism are the ones that will suffer the most significant consequences. It is essential to follow the provisions of the Paris Agreement; climate-neutral green economies. It is required to build the necessary capacity, determining a general policy course for low-emission development resilient to climate change. As Western Balkans is the region facing a real threat posed by climate change, it is necessary to more actively promote the concepts of environmental protection, conservation of resources, and the use of renewable energy sources. At the institutional level, it is necessary to promote the concept of human security policies through laws and other acts or to incorporate it into existing ones; identify the most vulnerable sectors; make risk and vulnerability assessments, and action plans that will more actively oppose climate change. It is critical to integrate specific policies and projects into strategies, identify existing adaptation opportunities to mitigate climate change and ensure international support. Recent plans for exploiting all rivers are a critical factor of environmental and human insecurity, eradicating the European "blue heart," not correlated to the environment or hydro-energy but systemic corruption. Through joint action and approach, it is possible to limit the consequences and work on capacity building, creating a more resilient community capable of protecting its citizens by implementing human security conceptualization. Action plans are needed to build more modern defense systems to prevent further floods. Given the efficiency shown during the 2014 floods, B&H ethnopolitical authorities' actions, and the complex government, there is a high degree of ethnopolitical manipulation and inefficiency.