Consultation Workshop on Enhancing Climate Information Services and Early Warning Organized for the Central Asia region

The United Nations Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP) organized a consultation workshop on enhancing climate information services and early warning for resilience on October 21-23rd, 2019, in Beijing. This workshop brought together around 30 experts from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), UNEP, China and Central Asian countries to exchange information and brainstorm on opportunities and concrete ideas for South-South cooperation on climate information and early warning for resilience through GCF and UNEP.   

The dry Central Asia region is especially vulnerable to significant impacts caused by climate change and inappropriate human activities. It is an important focal point of the Pan-Third Pole region. GCF shared and clarified application guidelines, and the workshop had extensive discussions about Central Asia`s climate vulnerabilities and challenges, technical and capacity gaps, priorities for climate finance etc.

During the workshop, Chinese experts shared China`s extensive experiences on early warning of multiple climate-induced hazards, restoration of land degradation and sand dust storm damage, the use of big data and remote sensing, long term ecosystem monitoring and assessment, and water and agriculture development. The sharing of such knowledge and experiences formed a valuable part of regional knowledge sharing and learning under the new GCF readiness programme guidelines.

The workshop identified several common regional issues to be tackled jointly with Chinese experts’ engagement and South-South cooperation. These include monitoring climate risks and emergencies in the Aral Sea basin, capacity building and early warning, water management and agriculture development, among others. UNEP-IEMP will continue to work closely with the governments of Central Asian countries, and the Science Division and Central Asia office of the UNEP and GCF secretariat to promote cooperation in the Central Asia region.

UNEP-IEMP is a centre for collaboration on ecosystem management between the CAS and UNEP. It has offices at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) in Beijing. IGSNRR provides financial management and administrative services for UNEP-IEMP.  
 

Group photo of the consultation workshop participants (Image by UNEP-IEMP) 


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