FAO boosts potential for climate change finance in the Republic of Tajikistan

Climate change is a serious issue in the Republic of Tajikistan. To this end, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) invited a wide group of partners to a climate finance workshop on 24-25 August in Dushanbe. The workshop was part of a Green Climate Fund (GCF) readiness project, implemented in close cooperation with the Committee for Environmental Protection under Government of Tajikistan.

The country is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and has a relatively low adaptive capacity for adaptation and mitigation. In response, the Government of Tajikistan is giving priority to the full-scale integration to adaptation and climate resilient measures across all key sectors of energy, transportation, agriculture, and water.  

The Green Climate Fund readiness project is part of a set of initiatives promoted by FAO to support the GCF National Designated Authority. The current second phase of the readiness project expands the activities of a previous project and supports the country in improving greenhouse gas emissions reductions reporting, as well as contributes to better knowledge sharing, establishing the measurement, reporting, and verification system to track climate actions to support the implementation of the nationally determined contributions (NDC) and increasing climate financing. Last year, FAO successfully supported the country in enhancing its NDC document and updating the country's ambition with the engagement of development partners, which was approved by the Government of Tajikistan and presented at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Tania Santivanez, lead technical officer, highlights that the project also supports the planning process to access climate finance by updating country work programmes and promoting engagement of the private sector and potential accredited entities.

Access to climate change finance is key to success of efforts to increase climate change resiliency. FAO experts are contributing to this important goal, among others, by conducting a private sector dialogue on climate change investment opportunities, enhancing private sector engagement in climate actions, and mapping of private sector actors who can deliver transformative investments, as well as raising awareness of the possibilities for financing in adaptation and mitigation domains.

Oleg Guchgeldiyev, FAO Representative in the Republic of Tajikistan highlighted the importance of the GCF Country Programme 2022–2027 to attract climate finance to the country and implement the country's obligation under the Paris Agreement and contribute to the realization of country ambitions reflected in the NDC document.

To enhance the capacity  for monitoring and evaluation, FAO earlier conducted  a training on tracking, monitoring, and streamlining climate finance, including GCF investments. The event was attended by representatives of various national and international organizations that are active in the process of climate measures formulation and implementation.

Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Environmental Protection under Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Abdulkadir Mavlodod noted the relevance of the training to the needs of the country and to support the process of implementation of the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change till 2030 and Mid-term Development Program for 2021–2025.

Building on these recent efforts to accelerate climate change financing, enhancing partnerships and climate measures formulation, FAO will continue to contribute to the Republic of Tajikistan’s efforts to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.