Dushanbe–April 15, 2022 – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organised a hybrid event on April 15, 2022, where 12 youth from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took part in "Climate Fresk," a virtual gaming platform to raise climate science awareness among youth.

The event was organised under UNDP's regional initiative called "The Policy Action for Climate Security in Central Asia", funded by the UK Government and implemented jointly by UNDP Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Tajikistan team participated in the game from the Business Incubator facilitated by "Startup Choikhona," a UNDP led youth platform. In contrast, the Uzbekistan team joined virtually to play and learn about climate change and its impact. During the 5-hour long gaming event, the participants acquired knowledge of the consequences of CO2 emissions, ocean acidification, rising sea levels, greenhouse effect etc.

"Very interesting game! I would like to underline the convenience of the platform and the organisational format of the event. The "Climate Fresk" can become popular among youth through advertising on social media because of emerging climate issues," – mentioned Robiya Rahmatova - a student from Russian-Tajik Slavonic University.

 "The game is indeed engaging. A lot of themes were discussed during the process. I would like to participate in other rounds of this event because it is interesting to play with participants from other countries," -  said Shahriyor Kabirov - a student at the Medical University of Tajikistan.

The Climate Fresk is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and is an international innovative tool for climate education – an immersive game in which one can get a more complete picture of climate change by building cause-and-effect relationships. And most importantly, the game allows the participants to see the role of human beings in climate change and think about how – humans can also solve the problems. The Climate Fresk was created in 2015 by Cédric Ringenbach to raise climate science awareness among a maximum number of people around the world. Recognising the scale of the climate change issues, the Climate Fresk aims to reach one million people worldwide with climate education by 2023 through the game. The game is available in 25 languages, and Climate Fresk operates in over 40 countries.

About the project

"The Policy Action for Climate Security in Central Asia"  project, funded by the UK Government, promotes regional cooperation on climate policy and effective climate diplomacy and positioning of countries on their climate agenda, based on science-based commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the important activities under this project is to enable access to information on climate risks and opportunities to civil society, youth, and women-led organisations and contribute to greater public awareness