Turkmenistan expands international cooperation in environmental protection
By Trend
Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat hosted a seminar on Turkmenistan’s international cooperation in the field of environmental protection and green economy, Trend reports citing the country’s foreign ministry.
The event focused on the results of the Green Central Asia high-level conference and the 9th meeting of the EU-CA working group on the environment and climate change.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment, the State Committee for Water Management and the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, as well as ambassadors of the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany to Turkmenistan.
During the seminar, the participants discussed the Turkmenistan’s initiatives on the development of a regional strategy for adaptation to climate change, taking into account the characteristics of Central Asian ecosystems and reducing climate risks, projects for integrated water resources management, and the implementation of the Subregional Action Plan to Combat desertification.
"It was also emphasized that Turkmenistan, implementing its national development programs, fully complies with the provisions of the UN Agenda 2030 and climate change strategies".
Turkmenistan borders with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan and uses water resources of four transboundary rivers such as Amu Darya, Tejen, Atrek and Murghab.
The special attention is paid to improving the regional action plan for environmental protection in Central Asia and accelerating the process of accession of the regional countries to the Framework Convention on Environmental Protection for Sustainable Development in Central Asia.
Turkmenistan is affected by the problem of Aral Sea's ecology. It is most noticeable in the country’s northern Dashoguz Region, where problems have arisen with the provision of drinking water, the fight against salinization of cultivation lands, land degradation and desertification.
The State Committee for Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan, jointly with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), implements projects on introducing the principles of green economy in the country.
The national strategy of Turkmenistan on climate change, as well as international initiatives of the country, presented at the sessions of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) Rio + 20, held in Brazil in 2012, are aimed at solving urgent problems in this sphere.
One of them is a proposal to open a regional center for technologies related to climate change of Central Asia and the Caspian basin in Ashgabat.
At this stage, Turkmenistan is studying the technical, economic, energy and environmental potential of solar power plants and the resources of other renewable energy sources in the country to address the challenges of green economy.
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