Today, UNDP Turkmenistan participated at the Youth Conference on Climate organized by the United Nations in Turkmenistan, UK Embassy and the Government of Turkmenistan. Mr. Batyr Ballyyev, UNFCCC National Focal Point for Turkmenistan and Project Manager of the GEF/UNDP Turkmenistan/Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan joint project "Sustainable Cities in Turkmenistan: Integrated Green Urban Development in Ashgabat and Awaza” provided a brief overview of Turkmenistan's strategic activities in the field of climate change supported by UNDP. The overview focused on the objectives and implementation of the updated National Strategy of Turkmenistan on Climate Change, fourth National Communication on Climate Change and Initial Biennial Update Report of Turkmenistan under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and very important new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) currently being developed under coordination of UNDP Turkmenistan.

The Local Conference of Youth (LCOY) gathered students, representatives of youth from all regions of the country, young SDG Ambassadors, Y-Peers, and other young activists and aimed at empowering local youth to discuss and present key climate change issues and develop the actions to combat its impact.

UNDP Turkmenistan project specialists, Ms. Jemal Durdykova and Ms. Gozel Atamuradova facilitated the thematic sessions of the Conference on Non-state actors’ engagement and Climate-conscious society. The group sessions allowed sharing knowledge and experiences, encouraging discussions of young activists on climate change issues and gave an opportunity for youth of the country to develop and present their own solutions on strengthening global action to tackle climate change.

The Conference participants developed the Final Summary of Youth Initiatives in Turkmenistan to be presented at COY16 and Roadmap of solutions to be implemented within the next year.