CAREC 2030: Supporting Regional Actions to Address Climate Change: A Scoping Study

By Asian Development Bank

The report's overarching conclusion is that CAREC has a unique and urgent opportunity to chart a course of proactive, systematic, and strategic engagement in supporting its member countries in reinforcing, modifying, and implementing existing national strategies on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and in developing a range of regional actions in response to the regional nature of many climate change impacts and solutions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Apr 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9789292701062

Book preview

CAREC 2030: SUPPORTING REGIONAL ACTIONS TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE

A SCOPING STUDY

APRIL 2023

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

© 2023 Asian Development Bank

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Some rights reserved. Published in 2023.

ISBN 978-92-9270-105-5 (print); 978-92-9270-106-2 (electronic); 978-92-9270-107-9 (ebook)

Publication Stock No. SPR230126-2

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/SPR230126-2

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Notes:

1. In this publication, $ refers to United States dollars, unless otherwise stated.

2. ADB recognizes China as the People’s Republic of China, Korea as the Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan as the Kyrgyz Republic, and Russia as the Russian Federation.

3. ADB has placed its regular assistance to Afghanistan on hold effective 15 August 2021.

4. All photos are owned by ADB unless otherwise stated.

On the cover: Windmills in Sainshand, capital of Dornogovi Province in Mongolia (photo by Eric Sales/ADB); emissions from coal-fired power plants contribute to the air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (photo by Ariel Javellana/ADB); rural lands experiencing drought in Mongolia (photo by Eric Sales/ADB); solar panels installed in Islamia University Bahawalpur Solar Park producing 2.5 megawatt of clean energy and improving people’s access to electricity in Punjab, Pakistan (photo by Rahim Mirza/ADB); and use of biogas slurry to plant Phyllostachys praecox in the People’s Republic of China (photo by Deng Jia/ADB). Cover design by Judy Yñiguez.

Contents

Tables, Figures, and Boxes

Azerbaijan. Construction and completion of flood mitigation work along the rivers of Sheki (photo by Daro Sulakauri/ADB).

Foreword

The CAREC 2030: Supporting Regional Actions to Address Climate Change—A Scoping Study presents a comprehensive overview of the potential impact of climate change on Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries. Its main objective is to assess and recommend how CAREC member countries can collaborate to address climate change issues through regional cooperation.

Commissioned by the CAREC Secretariat, this study examines 43 climate change issues and sub-issues through a literature review and in-depth consultations with experts and practitioners. The issues are core, crosscutting, and on-the-horizon, highlighting the need for policymakers to consider them.

The study concludes that CAREC has a unique opportunity to support its member countries in implementing and reinforcing existing national strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as in developing regional actions to respond to the regional climate change impacts and challenges.

Throughout the preparation process, the study report was discussed with CAREC member countries and development partners at the 21st Ministerial Conference in November 2022, and the member countries acknowledged it through a Joint Ministerial Statement issued after the conference.

This pioneering work will serve as the basis for preparing a regional climate change vision and strategy to further advance climate action through regional and subregional cooperation in one of the world’s most populous region.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expresses gratitude to the member countries for their active engagement and commitment to advancing regional climate change cooperation. ADB stands with the member countries in their efforts to address climate change issues and remains committed to providing necessary support as the climate bank for the Asia and Pacific region.

Yevgeniy Zhukov

Director General

Central and West Asia Department

Asian Development Bank

M. Teresa Kho

Director General

East Asia Department

Asian Development Bank

People’s Republic of China. Municipal District Energy Infrastructure Development Project. Jiamisu Cityscape (photo by Deng Jia/ADB).

Acknowledgments

This study was undertaken on behalf of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Secretariat and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The team would like to thank Yevgeniy Zhukov, director general, Central and West Asia Department (CWRD); M. Teresa Kho, director general, East Asia Department (EARD); Lyaziza Sabyrova, director of the Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division; Yasmin Siddiqi, director of Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Division, CWRD; and Thomas Panella, director of Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Division, EARD, for their invaluable guidance and management support.

The CAREC Secretariat at ADB administered and managed the production of this scoping study. The Secretariat team supporting CAREC climate change work includes Saad Paracha, senior regional cooperation specialist and CAREC unit head; Mary Ann Magadia, associate economics officer; Reneli Gloria, CAREC regional cooperation coordinator; and Alzeus Alzate, secretariat logistics coordinator. The study benefited from technical inputs, comments, and review by ADB climate change focal persons including Nathan Rive, Malte Maass, and Kathleen Anne Coballes. Other ADB staff including Safdar Parvez, Xiaoqin (Emma) Fan, Hideaki Iwasaki, Joonho Hwang, Sujata Gupta, Giap Minh Bui, Heeyoung Hong, Giacomo Giuseppe, Mark Bezuijen, Lei Zhang, Alfredo Bano, Belinda Hewitt, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Maria Pia Ancora, Rie Hiraoka, Shingo Kimura, and Silvia Cardasci, also provided valuable technical inputs.

The team expresses its appreciation to the CAREC Secretariat’s regional cooperation coordinators and national focal points’ advisors based in the member countries for the assistance extended in collecting relevant information from their respective countries and organizing the regional consultation workshops.

The principal author of this study is Johannes Linn, with Gulshat Raissova and Turdakun Tashbolotov providing research support. The secretariat expresses gratitude to CAREC member country officials and experts, development partners, and climate experts in the CAREC region and beyond for their valuable inputs to the study. The team also recognizes and is thankful for the helpful comments from colleagues at the Asian Development Bank Institute and the CAREC Institute.

Georgia. Windmill along the highway emits little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air (photo by Eric Sales/ADB).

Abbreviations

People’s Republic of China. Using biogas slurry to plant Phyllostachys praecox (photo by Deng Jia/ADB).

Executive Summary

The countries in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) region face severe impacts of climate change, now and more so in the future. The year 2022 has witnessed particularly dramatic and deadly examples of the impacts of climate change in the region, including the devastating floods in Pakistan, punishing droughts in Afghanistan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), days and even weeks of excessive heat, and cross-border conflict over scarce water resources in Central