Armenia will develop the fifth National Climate Change Communication, as well as the 1st and 2nd biennial transparency reports on the implementation of the obligations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The works will be carried out by "Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center" of RA Ministry of Environment. The United Nations Global Environment Facility will allocate about 1.2 million USD for the development of the report. The work plan was presented to UNDP-GEF on June 26, 2024, at the kick-off workshop of the new project.
Gohar Hovhannisyan, UNDP-GEF Project Lead, stated that "the purpose of the project is to support the country in assessing issues related to climate change in the context of ensuring the sustainable development of the country, as well as to include them in national and sectoral development policies, to institutionalize the inventory process of greenhouse gas emissions.
"Since the ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1993, Armenia has continuously fulfilled its communication obligations with the principles of transparency, consistency, comparability, completeness and accuracy, and UNDP remains true to its promise to support the Government of Armenia in meeting its international obligations," Natia Natsvlishvili, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia, noted.
Deputy Environment Minister Aram Meimaryan noted that Armenia ranks among the most vulnerable countries to climate change, which is clearly evidenced by the tragic climate events that took place in Lori Region during the last month, accompanied by floods, mudslides, hail and tornadoes. Now it is planned to compile a report with new stricter requirements on the inventory of greenhouse gas emissions.
Now it is planned to compile a report with new stricter requirements on the inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the data submitted by "Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center" of RA Environment Ministry , the average temperature in Armenia for 1935-2023 increased by 1.6 degrees, and precipitation decreased by 15%. "This year we constantly have anomalous phenomena. We had the warmest winter in 57 years, the wettest May in 87 years. In May, precipitation exceeded the norm by three times even in Lori and Tavush Regions.
Parallel to that, we had April, which was the driest April in the history of Armenia, the precipitation made up only 30-40%. All of them are consequences of global climate change and atmospheric circulation," Levon Azizyan, Director of Center for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring, outlined.
UNDP Climate Change Program Coordinator Diana Harutyunyan noted that the information collected in the press release serves as a basis for developing a sectoral policy. With these documents, Armenia is able to correctly assess what is being done in the country, because all the information is collected, we see the shortcomings and gaps. This information serves as a ground for developing policies.
June 28, 2024 at 19:01