President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov held a meeting with the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Inger Andersen in the margins of the COP28 world climate action summit on Friday, the Turkmen official media reports.
The Head of State of Turkmenistan and the UNEP Executive Director warmly greeted each other and expressed satisfaction with the opportunity to discuss current matters of environmental cooperation.
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov emphasised that Turkmenistan identifies climate change as an integral factor affecting sustainable development. During the meeting, it was proposed to establish a Regional Climate Technology Centre for Central Asia, with the main office in Ashgabat. In this regard, signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan and UNEP will serve as a foundation for joint work.
Continuing the discussions, the current matter on the international climate change agenda was cooperation on reducing methane emissions into the atmosphere. At the COP-28 meeting held on Friday in Dubai (UAE), Turkmenistan declared its accession to the Global Methane Pledge (GMP). Along with this, Turkmenistan intends to continue cooperation with international organisations and partner states within the framework of existing projects and programmes to fulfil the conditions arising from the Global Methane Pledge.
The Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations highly appreciated Turkmenistan's work in ecology, its constructive initiatives and its contribution to the solution of priority global tasks in this area.
At the end of the meeting, Turkmenistan and the UN Environment Programme reaffirmed their commitment to advancing an effective partnership that aligns with the goals of global well-being and sustainable development.
