Central Asia United with UN Partners for Healthy Environment

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22 Apr 2026 Speech Climate Action

Central Asia united with UN partners for a healthy environment

Photo by UNEP Speech delivered by: Inger Andersen For: Opening of the Regional Ecological Summit Location: Astana, Kazakhstan
Your excellency, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Distinguished Heads of State

Excellencies Ministers and Ambassadors, delegates, colleagues.

Allow me first to express my deep appreciation and thanks to Kazakhstan for the leadership in initiating this Regional Ecological Summit. We at UNEP are proud to be a key UN partner, engaging across 15 high-level and thematic sessions – including on the circular economy, biodiversity, climate action and air quality.

This beautiful and diverse region is facing significant challenges. Temperatures are rising faster than the global average. Shrinking biodiversity and degrading mountain ecosystems. Air pollution – including sand and dust storms.

You have felt the consequences. In the drying of the Aral Sea and the shrinking of the Caspian Sea, damaging livelihoods and local communities. In the melting of glaciers and the cryosphere, threatening freshwater supplies that support agriculture, energy production and millions of people.

But you are acting on these issues. Through agreements such as the UNEP-hosted Tehran Convention for the Protection of the Caspian Sea. Through national initiatives, such as Kazakhstan’s integration of environmental provisions into the Constitution just last month. Through the new UN Regional Centre for the SDGs for Central Asia and Afghanistan, in Almaty, and through hosting COPs for the Convention of Migratory Species, the COP for the CITES Convention, through leadership and engagement in the Rio Conventions and in the UN Environment Assembly. This Summit is another expression of this region’s commitment to act.

Excellencies,

Yes, this region is moving forward on environmental stewardship. The critical issues of water, land degradation, drought and climate action remains your primary priority, and rightly so. But aside from these, please allow me to suggest a few key areas in which you could make bigger difference nationally, regionally and indeed globally.

The first is by boosting regional collaboration, as outlined by this Summit.

This Summit recognizes that – with shared rivers, mountain ranges and air currents – this region faces cross-border environmental challenges that require cooperation and joint action.

I am therefore pleased that this Summit is considering new regional networks and initiatives aimed at driving progress – including on science, finance and the circular economy. In particular, the proposed Framework for Partnership on Circular Economy marks a golden opportunity to form a regional partnership in Central Asia. My thanks to Kazakhstan for the leadership in advancing this Framework, and to all five Central Asian nations for taking this important step in advancing their economies towards circularity.

UNEP very much looks forward to working closely with you on all the outcomes and strengthening collaboration, particularly through our sub-Regional Office for Central Asia in Almaty. However, I encourage you to also accelerate efforts on a regional mechanism for cooperation on air quality – in line with the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution. Air pollution does not respect borders. One breath out is another country’s breath in. Therefore, working together is a must.

The second area is reducing methane emissions.

Action to lower methane emissions – particularly from the oil and gas industry – is one of the most effective levers to quickly reduce the rate of global warming. As methane is also a precursor of tropospheric ozone, action on emissions can address air pollution. And as methane is the main component of natural gas, ending venting and flaring and fixing leaks in the fossil fuel industry can increase supplies of a vital resource, increasing energy security.

All countries in Central Asia have joined the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions 30 per cent by 2030. I thank you for this commitment. However, Central Asia is the world’s lowest-covered region under UNEP’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 – the global standard for methane reporting. I encourage all national oil companies in the region to join the Partnership, for more transparency and accountability, driving emissions reductions.

The third area is increasing action on biodiversity and ecosystems for resilience.

Central Asia’s biodiversity acts as resilience infrastructure: wetlands for flood buffering; forests, grass- and rangelands for soil stability and drought resilience; fragile glaziers that are the water towers of the region, and connected mountain habitats for climate‑driven species movement.

UNEP’s Central Asian Mammals and Climate Adaptation project has already demonstrated how climate‑informed tools and community approaches can be scaled into national policy and transboundary cooperation.

Now, under the Nature-Based Solutions Innovation Accelerator, UNEP recently launched a call for proposals for Central Asia on piloting resilient infrastructure development through integrating Nature-based Solutions. Please do submit your innovative proposals by the end of June.

Excellencies,

Today is Earth Day, which is calling for people across the world to stand shoulder to shoulder to defend our common home. In a time of global upheaval and national protectionism, this Summit is also sending a powerful message to the world that unity and cooperation is the only way forward. I wish you every success and assure you that you can count on UNEP to be with you on every step of your joint journey.

Topics
- Climate action
- Air quality
- Energy
- Green economy
- Nature action

• Nature-based Solutions
• Biodiversity
• Energy Efficiency
• Methane
• Nature
• Pollution #### Related Content

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