Today, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov held a meeting on the sidelines of the COP-28 Conference with the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Inger Andersen, TDH reports.

During the conversation, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted that Turkmenistan identifies climate change as an integral factor affecting sustainable development. The country actively supported the Paris climate agreement, ratifying it in October 2016.

It was emphasized that solving environmental problems requires combining efforts at the global, regional and national levels, the need for multilateral cooperation and coordination of actions of each state with the UN.

Based on this, Turkmenistan proposes to create a Regional Center for Climate Technologies for Central Asian countries with headquarters in Ashgabat. In this context, hope was expressed that the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan and UNEP will become the basis for joint activities in this direction.

Continuing the meeting, interaction on the issue of reducing methane emissions into the atmosphere was named as a pressing topic on the international agenda in the field of climate change. At today's Conference, our country announced its accession to the Global Methane Commitment (GMP).

At the same time, 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.

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.”

In addition, during the chairmanship of Turkmenistan in IFAS, a draft of the 4th phase of the Action Program to provide assistance to the countries of the Aral Sea basin was prepared.

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 United Nations Special Program.

The Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, 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.