Ashgabat, 28-29 June 2018: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly with the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan held the first pilot seminar for 35 teachers and trainers introducing the set of training materials for school teachers and students “Climate Box”. The interactive learning toolkit on climate change was developed by an interdisciplinary team of Russian experts in 2014-2015.

In 2016-2017, UNDP initiated the regional project on replication of Climate Box in countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. The regional project "Climate Box" is implemented by the UNDP with the financial support of the Russian Federation (RF) through the Climate Window of the UNDP-Russia Development Trust Fund. The project is being implemented in seven countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia: Armenia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

“The advantage of this regional course is that it can be fully adopted into the national context while presenting the global trends, reasons and solutions to the climate change effects,” stated Vitalie Vremis, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative of Turkmenistan.

Participants of the seminar were introduced to the context of the new education course and methods of teaching. Teachers learnt how the Earth's climate has changed from the earliest geological epochs, what climate changes are happening now, how these changes affect nature and humanity, whether we can adapt to the inevitable impacts, how to prevent the most dangerous consequences of global warming, and what is already being done in different regions of the world.

The “Climate Box” consists of an illustrated textbook, the Climate Quiz game, a wall map illustrating the possible effects of climate change on nature and mankind, a poster with tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, and a disk with all of the toolkit materials. The textbook was translated into Turkmen language and the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan foresees adaptation of its content to Turkmenistan context for application in various courses of the school programme including nature, biology, geography, natural sciences and others.

UNDP and the Government of Turkmenistan established a close collaboration on the issues of climate change. Currently, there are two running projects and two more lined up for the launch. The biggest development partners investing into reducing climate change effects, ensuring sustainable water and energy use practices are the Global Environment Fund and the Adaptation Fund.