Dubai – UAE – The creation of a Mountain Partnership Negotiating Group was discussed during the side event “Mountains and Climate Change: Understanding the Need for the Mountain Partnership Group” Negotiating Group on December 6 at the Central Asia Pavilion of the UNFCCC COP28.
Representatives of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Andorra, Armenia, Zimbabwe and representatives of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) participated in the discussion. The members of ICIMOD are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Mountainous regions have their unique ecosystems and serve as one of the primary sources of freshwater stored in huge massifs of glaciers. Everyone knows that climate change, along with global temperature rise, poses a threat to both freshwater treasures and mountain dwellers.
Realizing the importance of protecting the interests of the mountain regions of the planet, the Kyrgyz Republic proposed the initiative to create a permanent negotiating group – Group of Mountain Partnership (GMP) – within the framework of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Mountain Partnership Secretariat of FAO welcomed the initiative of Kyrgyzstan. Andorra, as the initiator of item 18 on the agenda of COP28, entitled “Mountains and Climate Change: Highlighting the need for the protection of vulnerable mountain ecosystems while building the resilience of mountain peoples and economies to reduce loss and damage”, also supported the creation of a GMP negotiating group.
Reportedly, GMP will unite countries in developing strategies and measures to mitigate the effects of climate change in mountain regions and protect mountain areas.
Video recording is at – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-KDv9iv1p0&t=10s
