ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 28. The Central Asian Climate Change Conference (CACCC-2024) is being held in Kazakhstan's Almaty with the participation of delegations from Central Asian countries and international experts to discuss pressing issues around sustainable water and land management, energy, food security, and environmental sustainability in the context of climate change in the region, Trend reports, citing the World Bank.
According to the WB, this conference also serves as a preparatory stage for the countries to discuss the participation of the Central Asian governments at the upcoming 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP29), scheduled for November 11–22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Participants review progress, challenges, and gaps in the implementation of climate commitments by Central Asian countries, issues of carbon neutrality, green transition, and security, and explore collective action to reduce climate-related disaster risks. The participants also review available platforms and capacity for bolstered regional cooperation on climate change adaptation.
Thus, Zafar Makhmudov, Executive Director of the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC), speaking at the conference, noted that Central Asia is vulnerable to the adverse effects of a rapidly changing climate, given its agricultural economy, aging infrastructure, and rapid population growth.
"In these conditions, the need to improve regional cooperation in energy and water resource management alongside approaches to adaptation to climate change is obvious. The conference aims to strengthen this cooperation to increase the region's resilience," he said.
In turn, Tatiana Proskuryakova, World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia, pointed out that climate change is an urgent challenge, and the countries of Central Asia can only address it if they work together.
"This means tackling a broad set of issues simultaneously, from adopting and implementing green policies to deploying green financing and investing in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and natural resource management. We will continue working hand in hand with our government counterparts, sharing our analysis and advice, but also providing financing for priority investment projects for the benefit of people in Central Asia," she noted.
This November, Azerbaijan will host COP29. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary meeting held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Baku will become the center of the world and will receive about 70–80,000 foreign guests.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. The COP—the Conference of the Parties—is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. There are 198 countries that are parties to the Convention. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.