Concepts of green projects in Central Asia and European eco-standards - under the focus of the regional seminar in Almaty
Almaty hosted the two-day workshop “Tailor-made support for environmental project identification and preparation for consideration by IFIs” was organized by the EU-funded project "EU-Central Asia Enhanced Regional Cooperation on Environment, Climate Change and Water" (WECOOP) which supports the EU-CA Working Group on Environment and Climate Change.
The project event brought together representatives of the European Union, environmental organizations of five Central Asian countries, major financial institutions (EBRD, ADB, world Bank), the Regional Environmental Center of Central Asia. On behalf of Turkmenistan, deputy head of the international relations and planning department, State Committee for environmental protection and land resources Mergen Yusupov took part in the seminar.
The gathering was aimed at exchanging knowledge and experience in the field of environmental regulation and standards for the subsequent development of mature and bankable investment projects, analysis of common environmental priorities in the countries of the region.
The WECOOP experts and specialists of the Ministry for the environment, land and sea of Italy during their presentations familiarized the Central Asian colleagues with such aspects of EU legislation in the field of the environment, such as climate change, circular economy and waste management, biodiversity, air quality management and environmental assessment.
As noted, European directives and legal requirements may be useful in the preparation of green projects for Central Asia in the future.
The workshop participants made a preliminary selection of priority concepts for future projects that are expected to be subsidized by multilateral financial institutions.
In particular, one of the sessions addressed ways to improve the access of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to international financing for projects with a focus on solid waste, air quality management, water and biodiversity.
Strengthening international financial support for Central Asian countries in terms of environmental innovation and development of environmental and water infrastructure adapted to climate change is one of the priority areas of cooperation between the EU and Central Asia in the field of environmental protection.
In August 2016, the second phase of the WECOOP project was launched, the key objective of which is to strengthen the partnership between donors and partners for the implementation of best practices and translating policies into concrete investment projects in line with the countries’ development priorities.
