Kyrgyzstan signed the Paris Agreement in 2019, thereby joining the global community in the fight against climate change. The main tool of the Paris Agreement is the so-called nationally determined contributions (NDCs). They present a country's commitments towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change impacts. Kyrgyzstan is in the process of updating its NDCs under the lead of the Ministry of Economy. 

Remote sensing with satellites and GIS present new tools that can be used to inform the update. Satellite derived information can give insights on e.g. vegetation development, land degradation, erosion, or flood risks. This session presented what types of earth observation products exist that may be of interest for the update. Participants discussed which products are best suited to inform the NDC update. 

This information session was jointly organized by UNDP, GIZ and IFAD. Presentations including “Earth observation for sustainable development products”, “Sibelius data cube”, “Technology based adaptation to climate change”, “Forest management information system” were held by the State Agency on land resources, the Sibelius initiative and the Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) programme. 

Baktygul Ysabekova, UNDP coordinator on NDCs, spoke of what Kyrgyzstan is doing towards updating NDCs in the country; Meder Toitonov, regional coordinator of a GIZ project “Technological adaptation to the climate change in rural areas of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan” presented their efforts.

Background: Climate change is a global threat to humanity, which can affect the lives of people around the world and the development of countries. Climate change and its acceleration can already in the near future adversely impact energy, industry, infrastructure, agriculture, and natural resources.

The Kyrgyz Republic, like many other countries in the global community, by ratifying the Paris Agreement in November 2019, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a cause of climate change, by between 11.5% and 13.8%, and confirmed its intention to transform economic activities to a low-carbon model and to increase climate resilience. These commitments translate into the provision of NDCs, which bring together each country's efforts on reduction of national emissions and climate change adaptation. NDCs shall be updated every five years. The country plans to develop updated national measures that contribute to achieving the Paris Agreement goals in the spring of 2021. They will be presented at the 26^th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC to be held in November 2021 in Glasgow, UK.

The NDC process is supported by UNDP as well as other development partners, and expert consultation support is provided as part of the technical assistance.