Publication

More than 50 delegates of the national governments, scientists, NGOs, international organizations, experts and media from four Central Asian countries participated in the two-day regional conference on “Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on Adaptation to Climate Change in Central Asia facing COP 18 to the UNFCCC” hosted by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) within the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) in partnership with UNDP “Central Asian Multi-Country Programme on Climate Risk Management (CA-CRM)” and Drynet.

 

The conference Agenda was divided into three sessions. The first day of the conference consisted of one extensive session on climate change adaptation priorities and technology needs in water and agricultural sectors in each of the countries represented.

 

The other two sessions on the second day primarily a) focused on financial options to meet national adaptation costs, and b) the final one was built around the dialogue on thematic priorities, opportunities and expectations for the 18th session of the Conference of the UN FCCC parties on adaptation to climate change.

 

The first session was opened by Mrs. Lyudmila Aksyonova, Head of Department of International cooperation and programs, State Committee for Nature Protection of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The first part of the session before the first coffee break, included four presentations from representatives of international organizations, which provided an overall regional perspective on the relevance of adaptation issues in the region. This session geared up the participants towards the conference theme, which was moderated by Mrs. Mariya Genina, Environmental Management Program Specialist of CAREC. The second part of the same session consisted of four blocks devoted to each country of Central Asia in the alphabetic order: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. During this session the national actions and strategies for adaptation to the climate changes in the water and agricultural sector and the most effective local adaptation strategies were shared by the respective countries to the audience. This was followed by a dialogue session between the presenters and the audience, with an aim to bring out the priority issues for discussions on financing on the following day.

 

The second day began with the second session on financial options in adaptation, moderated by Mrs. Ludmila Kiktenko, Financial Resources Mobilization Coordinator, CAREC. The four presentations of this session revolved around interesting topics such as:- various possible sources of financing for the sector, regional initiatives of EU, local funding mobilization through Payments for Ecosystem Services and integrated financial strategies. The session was finalized by the break out discussion on financial aspects and some relevant discussion guided us to some concrete results.

 

The second day after lunch session was continued as the third session of the conference, moderated by Dr. Puja Sawhney, Coordinator of the regional Hub for Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN), Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). The introductory presentation on thematic priorities, opportunities and expectations for COP 18th of UNFCCC by Ms. Zhanara Essenova, Head of the expert group on adaptation and vulnerability in the frame of the preparation of the Third National Report to UNFCCC of the Republic of Kazakhstan, was very helpful to open up the plenary discussion. The session further gathered momentum in the form of small group discussions on developing the regional recommendations on various sectors in the field of adaptation to climate change: water resource management, agriculture, emergency situations and human health. The conference was finalized by the break out session with regional intersectoral dialogue and discussion and formation of the conference resolution.

 

It’s of special mention here that this conference is one of the first of its kind at the regional level which goes beyond national levels and pertain its existence within the boundaries of regional and international experiences.