Sectoral ministries presented concrete measures that they intend to implement within their respective competencies, and which would contribute to meeting the commitments of Turkmenistan under the Paris Agreement*. Most of those measures are related to modernising and optimising industrial processes, implementing rational use of water and natural resources, building professional capacities of Turkmen specialists, and many others.
All proposals of national stakeholders and development agencies* will be synthesised by a team of national experts for inclusion in the draft of the revised Strategy on Climate Change. The final draft will be submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection to the Cabinet of Ministers for internal government screening and approval.
Since September 2018, in coordination with SLU-CA programme, the Government of Turkmenistan has been revising its National Climate Strategy. The current strategy was approved in 2012 within the framework of the country’s international obligations to implement the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)*, which Turkmenistan joined in 1995. The present revision is being prepared in accordance with a Framework provision stipulating such an update every five years; it has also been partially stimulated by the Paris Agreement.
The work on updating the strategy was launched at the end of 2018 under the coordination of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment with the support of the United Nations Development Programme and GIZ.
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Throughout 2019, UNDP has organized information exchanges between development agencies and the diplomatic community to develop concrete project ideas for inclusion in the revision.
Following the lead of UNDP and GIZ, WHO* is the third most active development agency cooperating with the Turkmenistani government on the topic of climate change. It has been active since the beginning of 2019.
At present, it supports Ministry of Health and Medical Industry in elaboration of the National Action Plan on Adaptation to Climate Change for Health.
*Abbreviations/Explanation:
Paris Agreement — is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas- emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.
National stakeholders and development agencies – UNDP, GIZ (SLU-CA and TWM), CAREC, WHO, OSCE, Italian Embassy, French Embassy, German Embassy (development agencies and diplomatic missions); National Parliament, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection, Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Industry and Communications (with its subordinate agencies for: Automobile transport, Railway transport, Airways, Industrial Production, etc.), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Medical Industry, Ministry of Construction
and Architecture, Ministry of Defense, State Statistics Committee, State Committee on Water Economy, State Concern “Turkmengas”, State Concern “Turkmenoil”, State Concern “Turkmenhimiya”, Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Nature Protection Society (National Stakeholders).
UNFCCC — United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It then entered into force on 21 March 1994, after a sufficient number of countries had ratified
it. The UNFCCC objective is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. — United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
WHO – World Health Organisation is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.