On December 1, 2023, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov held a meeting on the sidelines of the COP28 Conference with the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Inger Andersen.

At the beginning of the meeting, the parties confirmed readiness of Turkmenistan and UNEP to further strengthen the traditional fruitful interaction.

As President Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted, Turkmenistan identifies climate change as an integral factor affecting sustainable development. In accordance with the obligations assumed by Turkmenistan, a new edition of the National Climate Change Strategy was approved in September 2019.

In May 2022, our country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) was approved as part of the fulfillment of obligations under the Paris Agreement, which was officially submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In order to take action to solving environmental problems was proposed to create a Regional Center for Climate Technologies for Central Asian countries with headquarters in Ashgabat.

The head of state emphasized that Turkmenistan intends to continue cooperation with international organizations and partner states within the framework of existing projects and programs aimed at fulfilling the conditions arising from the Global Methane Commitment.

During the meeting, the Aral issue was also touched upon. As is known, Turkmenistan chaired the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) from 2017 to 2019. A lot of work has been done during this period. For the first time after a long break, the IFAS Summit was held in August 2018 with the participation of the heads of all states of Central Asia, which took place in our country.

At the initiative of Turkmenistan, the UN General Assembly in 2018 and 2019 adopted the Resolutions “Cooperation between the United Nations and the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea”. They became the basis for the development of interaction between IFAS and specialized agencies, programs and funds of the UN system, as well as international financial institutions.

It was also noted that on May 19, 2023, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) adopted a Resolution initiated by Turkmenistan regarding the establishment of the above-mentioned UN Special Program.

An important place in cooperation between Turkmenistan and the Community of Nations in the environmental field is also given to the Caspian theme. Thus, in September of this year, at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, our country made a proposal to create the “Caspian Environmental Initiative”, which is intended to become an international platform for substantive interaction on issues of environmental protection of the Caspian Sea, the conservation of its biological resources, and the solution of a number of pressing environmental problems .

The Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, highly appreciated the work carried out by Turkmenistan in the environmental field, its constructive initiatives and contribution to solving priority global tasks in this direction.

At the end of the meeting, the commitment of Turkmenistan and the UN Environment Program to further effective partnership that meets the goals of universal well-being and sustainable development was reaffirmed.