UN supports regional Climate Change Seminar

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Georgian Ministry for Environment Protection and Natural Resources initiated a discussion about the regional strategies for reducing the negative impact of climate change.

A 2-day seminar began on 7 September, and brought together the leading national experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as international consultants and representatives of UNDP in all three South Caucasus countries.

Addressing the participants of the seminar, Sophie Kemkhadze, Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP Georgia, and Mikheil Tushishvili, Deputy Head of Integrated Environment Management under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia, stressed the importance of improving data exchange between the South Caucasus countries.

“For realistic regional scenarios, we need to identify priority areas in all three countries and assess the climate change risks,” Sophie Kemkhadze said.

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have finalised their second national reports (National Communications) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The country reports examine the most vulnerable areas for each of the countries and suggest climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. At this stage, the South Caucasus countries need to adjust their climate change scenarios in the regional context. They also need to find common and coordinated solutions for cross-border geographic areas or shared biophysical systems, such as the Kura-Aras basin.