Esra Buttanri

Esra Buttanri has 25 years of experience in sustainable development, environment, climate change, and good governance fields mostly devoted to managing technical co-operation activities as well as supporting policymaking and implementation.  Strategic analysis and support for policy planning, results-based management, fundraising & partnerships, and leadership & team management are among the skills that she has developed over the years.

She is an Environmental Engineer with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Webster University (at the stage of thesis preparation), Vienna, Austria

Starting with the 1992 Rio Conference, she has been actively engaged in and contributed to several regional and global processes in the environment and sustainable development fields. 

Since 2007, at the OSCE, has been supporting environmental co-operation and environmental risk reduction through a security lens supported by a  broad portfolio of projects in the areas of climate change, natural resources management, disaster risk reduction, transboundary water co-operation, hazardous waste management, and good environmental governance. 

From May 2019 to December 2023 she served as Senior Advisor on Sustainable Development at OSCE, she particularly focused on the climate-security nexus including within the context of the broader sustainable development framework. This has included being active in the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC). She also had the opportunity to be part of the OSCE's efforts in supporting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Since December 2023 she is Senior Portfolio Manager-Climate Action at UNOPS where she is involved in the management of the relevant portfolio of projects, including their planning, delivery, monitoring, governance and stakeholder coordination, as well as issues and risks, and leading and coordinating UNOPS participation and inputs under the respective projects and programmes as part of the Austria Multi-Country Office (AUMCO) team.

Esra has been a participant and speaker in several GMACCC and related events including:

• The Climate-Security Nexus: Implications for the Military (October 2019)
• The Security Implications of Emerging Climate Altering Technologies (October 2019)
• Enhancing Climate Diplomacy in a Changing Political Environment (November 2017)

Selected Publications: 

• Sustainable development and security – the global agenda and its reflections in the OSCE (10 January 2020)
• Climate Change, Global Security, and the OSCE In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2019, Baden-Baden 2020, pp. 215-229

Photo Credit: OSCE/Ben Erasin

Individual Members of GMACCC serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of their respective organisations.