The Central Asia Climate Change Conference kicked off in Tashkent on April 3.
The main objective of the 2019 Central Asia Climate Change Conference is to promote cooperation and partnership on climate adaptation and mitigation in Central Asia. The event also aims at fostering regional dialogue, knowledge and information exchange on climate change and help building a climate resilient future. It is also expected that the conference will give an impetus to the implementation of multi-sectoral development programs in Aral Sea basin and attract new investments to the initiatives on sustainable development in the region. The Outcome Document in the format of a Call for Actions is expected to contain practical recommendations for the countries of Central Asia to step forward on climate adaptation measures and strengthen a multi-country partnership on climate policy.
The Conference intends to bring more than 200 representatives from governmental and non-governmental agencies, academia, youth, development partners, multilateral development banks and CSOs that work in the area of climate change. Additionally, the Conference will strive to co-partner with national and international partners, who implement similar climate change projects in the region, to have a better synergy and provide most up-to-date information and knowledge on climate change.
Climate change impacts are nowadays observed in all key development sectors with Central Asia to having one of the highest vulnerability levels. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported 2013-2018 the warmest on record. Although the global community undertakes serious efforts to fight against climate change and adopted new global agreements (Paris Agreement in 2015 and rulebook in 2018), air temperature keeps its rising level along with the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The countries of Central Asia set their climate agenda around global policy and commitments, national climate actions, mobilization of resources, transfer of new technologies and best practices both on climate adaptation and mitigation. At the same time, strengthening of policy dialogue between the countries and activation of decision-making process at the highest official level on above mentioned is the best indicator of the effectiveness of mutual cooperation.
The Central Asia Climate Change Conference 2019 (CACCC-2019) aims to bring the priorities of Central Asia into focus, and structure the content of the event into pre-conference and conference sessions. The CACCC-2019 is a continuation of the World Bank’s initiative for climate change knowledge and information exchange in Central Asia, and is organized under the frameworks of CAMP4ASB project. The previous CACCC was organized on January 24-25, 2018 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and resulted in joint collaborative actions of many stakeholders. The findings of the CACCC-2018 are elaborated into key messages and formulated the thematic content for the CACCC-2019 program.
