Sustainable Development Goal 13 calls on the international community to take urgent measures to combat climate change and its consequences.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change serves as the main international intergovernmental framework for coordinating the global response to climate change. Turkmenistan is a party to the UNFCCC, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Turkmenistan is already facing the consequences of climate change. The average atmospheric air temperature in Turkmenistan has risen by 1.4 degrees Celsius over the last 55 years, while the global temperature has increased by 0.8 degrees Celsius over the last century. In addition, the frequency and amount of precipitation is decreasing, floods, mudflows and periods of abnormal heat are becoming more frequent.
The country is also facing the consequences of the Aral Sea disaster. In this regard, Turkmenistan is directing efforts to build up the country’s resilience and adaptation potential to climate change.
A number of programs and strategies have been adopted in the country, which also include measures for adaptation to climate change. Among them:
- “National Strategy on Climate Change”, adopted in a new edition in 2019 and aimed at reducing the risks associated with climate change. The Strategy provides for a set of measures for the rational use of natural resources, combating land degradation, developing forestry and increasing the area of planted forests, improving the condition of irrigated lands and countering soil salinization.
- In 2022, the project “Development of the national adaptation planning process in Turkmenistan” was launched.
- National Action Plan for the adaptation of the health of the population of Turkmenistan to climate change and its adverse consequences for 2020-2025.
- Action Plan to prevent the effects of heat on the health of the population of Turkmenistan (2022).
- National Aral Program for the period 2021-2025.
- The program “Revival of a new era of a powerful state: National Program of socio-economic development of Turkmenistan in 2022-2052”
- The project “Conservation and sustainable management of land resources and ecosystems of high natural value in the Aral Sea Basin for multiple benefits”.
- The National Forest Program for 2021-2025.
- The program of the President of Turkmenistan for the socio-economic development of the country in 2022-2028.
Global climate change is associated with a rapid increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Turkmenistan strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sets an ambitious goal – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in 2030 relative to the level of emissions in 2010.
In order to implement the obligations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Turkmenistan has prepared three National Communications on Climate Change. The fourth Climate Change Communication is currently being finalized. In order to implement these communications, an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and effluents, an analysis and assessment of population vulnerability and adaptation, and a number of economic sector assessments in Turkmenistan were conducted.
The most important direction of adaptation to climate change is to increase the resilience of agriculture to climate change. Within the framework of the Forest Program, 30 million seedlings of deciduous, coniferous and fruit tree species were planted throughout the country in 2021.
In 2020, Turkmenistan joined the international program “Trees in Cities”, announced by the UNECE to support actions to combat climate change in cities.
Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in education. In 2022, the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education of Turkmenistan jointly with UNICEF developed new methodological manuals on adaptation to climate change for secondary school teachers. These manuals are the first of this kind in Central Asia.
This year the UNESCO Chair “Environmental Education for Sustainable Development” was opened at the Turkmen State Pedagogical Institute named after Seyitnazar Seydi, and the UNESCO Club “Environmental Protection – an important concept of sustainable development” was established at the Turkmen Agricultural Institute in Dashoguz.
Turkmenistan initiated the development of a Regional Environmental Protection Program for the sustainable development of Central Asia within the framework of regional cooperation. The program will help the countries of the region to meet their obligations under the UN environmental conventions, implement the Paris Climate Agreement and introduce the principles of a “green” economy.
Adaptation measures are also being implemented within the framework of the Sendai Framework Program for Disaster Risk Reduction for 2015-2030 and are aimed at reducing the risks of natural disasters, such as floods, mudflows and drought. ///nCa, 17 August 2023 (based on the materials of the newspaper “Neutral Turkmenistan”)
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