The first extended meeting of the interdepartmental working group "Climate Promise-2" (NDC) and the National Adaptation Planning (NAP) was held with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic and UNDP Kyrgyzstan.

The past 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow was of great importance for Kyrgyzstan to announce its climate ambitions. President Sadyr Japarov at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly said that Kyrgyzstan will try to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and confirmed intentions to follow low-carbon development with international support. This reinforced the NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) of Kyrgyzstan submitted to the UNFCCC ahead of COP26.

Tackling the climate crisis requires all countries to make bold commitments through the UNFCCC Paris Agreement to reduce global warming greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen adaptation to its impacts. The NDC is a climate change commitment aimed at limiting global warming well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, and embodies each country's efforts to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. UNDP supported Kyrgyzstan's NDC under the Climate Promise initiative.

In the first phase, this initiative, supported by NDC Partnership, has helped countries prepare their NDCs: to date, 94 Climate Promise countries have submitted their NDCs, representing 84% of all developing country contributions and more than 20% of GHG emissions, more than 90 % increased mitigation and more than 95% increased adaptation.

On November 3, 2021, the first week of COP26, UNDP launched the next phase of the Climate Promise, “From Promise to Action,” scaling up its support to turn NDC goals into action in at least 100 countries. This contribution will enable countries to accelerate inclusive action to achieve their goals while continuing to achieve more ambitious climate action.

Now begins the next chapter of the Climate Promise – From Promise to Action (2022-2026) – which will enable UNDP to scale up support to use NDCs as national investment plans for key sustainable development levers.

Kyrgyzstan is among the few countries in the EECCA region that has entered the second phase of the Climate Promise, having received technical assistance for activities to promote planning for the implementation of NDCs. These can be implementation plans, funding strategies, the concept of long-term zero income, and climate resilient development paths. And today the process of implementing this project is being launched.

The creation of a working group under the coordination of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic with the participation of all key ministries and departments will serve as one of the main mechanisms for tracking progress in the implementation of NDCs and NAPs, as well as a platform for discussing the country's climate policy. The participants of the meeting got acquainted with the activities of the Climate Promise-2 project and the NAP, discussed the roles of the members of the Interdepartmental Working Group and further plans for implementation.

The interdepartmental working group agreed on the methodology for the NAP project on institutional capacity assessment and capacity building on national adaptation planning and budget review in four priority sectors of Kyrgyzstan for the implementation of climate change adaptation measures. The government of Kyrgyzstan has identified 4 vulnerable sectors: agriculture and irrigation, biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction and health.

The methodology for assessing institutional capacity identifies the main strengths and weaknesses of the capacity of the four ministries, and based on this, specific and targeted recommendations for capacity building for climate change adaptation will be developed in the following categories:

• Long-term vision and mandate

• Institutional and legal framework

• Planning and implementation

• Coordination and partnership

• Monitoring and evaluation

• Climate information and risk assessment

• State enterprises

The main objective of the budget review methodology is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of financial resources by reviewing the budgets of line ministries with a focus on climate change adaptation, sources of funding, and potential legal frameworks.

UNDP, together with Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic and other development partners, will continue to cooperate and assist in achieving climate mitigation and adaptation goals through its initiatives and projects, in particular within the framework of the global Climate Promise initiative and the Green Climate Fund project “Advancing development of a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process for medium and long-term adaptation planning and implementation in the Kyrgyz Republic.”