Armenia is committed to update country’s (NDC) by 2020 in response to the growing impacts and mitigating risks of climate change with the ultimate goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCCC and according to Paris Agreement.

As EaP country and beneficiary of the European Union funded “EU4Climate” EU-UNDP regional programme Armenia is receiving support for updating country’s NDC and realizing its ambitious climate agenda.

For the purpose to embark on a new journey to update Armenia’s NDC a round table discussion brought together Government authorities, NDC Partnership officials and experts, EU Delegation to Armenia and UNDP in Armenia representatives, EU4Climate country team and international consultant to exchange thoughts on the process of NDC update, in the light of EU Green Deal and UNDP’s Climate Promise initiatives.

The UNDP Climate Change Programme Coordinator, Diana Harutyunyan welcomed the participants and stressed the crucial role of collaboration between the Ministry of Environment as the leading responsible national body for advancing and coordinating Armenia’s climate agenda together with other ministries and international donors and partners.

The Deputy Minister of Environment of the Republic of Armenia, Irina Ghaplanyan, the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the RA, Hakob Vardanyan, the International Aid/Cooperation Officer of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Andrea Baggioli and the UNDP in Armenia Deputy Resident Representative, Mihaela Stojkoska delivered speeches emphasizing the need for joining efforts towards developing enhanced NDC with more ambitious targets and turning it more actionable in terms of finance allocations and institutional set up.

Irina Ghaplanyan welcomed the participants and emphasized the EU’s initiative back to December 2019 undertaking the global leadership against climate change and setting serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions under the EU Green Deal. The Deputy Minister highlighted the strong partnership between the counterparts and thanked the UNDP Armenia representatives and NDC partnership colleagues for contributing to the work of this exceptionally important process for updating the NDC through expertise and technical support.

“The UNDP Armenia is highly privileged to contribute and mobilize its unique global position and resources to this turning point of accelerating actions towards more determined national plans for building climate change resilience and realizing carbon neutral ambitions. Back to 2019 the UNDP initiated the Climate Promise announcing its commitment towards supporting 100 countries globally to enhance their NDCs”, mentioned Mihaela Stojkoska, in her speech. She also highlighted the importance of the support Armenia receives in the frames of “EU4Climate” programme to reach the ambitious targets set by country’s climate agenda.

Mr. Andrea Baggioli, the International Aid/Cooperation Officer of the EU Delegation to Armenia, stressed the importance to find new ways of enhancing impact in fields such as climate action and clean energy transition, circular economy, waste management, environmental health and pollution reduction, and biodiversity and ecosystem protection. He reiterated that these green goals should be embedded into the national strategy policy.

The Deputy the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the RA, Hakob Vardanyan spoke about the achievements and continuous steps taken towards the reduction of CO2 emissions mostly coming from energy sector. Development of solar power utilization, Armenia’s ambitions for renewable energy with targets of introducing 1000 MV solar energy power plants by 2026, renewal of nuclear and radioactive waste management systems with higher standards were presented by the Deputy Minister.

Afterwards, the key activities of UNDP Climate Promise, the components and the vision for next steps within the “EU4Climate” programme supporting the NDC update process were presented by the “EU4Climate” country team.

Subsequently, the overview of NDC partnership, its mission, delivered results across the countries and their engagement stages, the objectives, goals and outputs of Armenia's partnership plan and reaching agreement on worklpan deadlines for country engagement in 2020 were presented.

During the technical part of discussion the guidance for NDC update, the EU legislative strategy towards delivering Paris Agreement goals and developing long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies by countries were outlined by Marzena Chodor, the International Consultant responsible for “EU4Climate” programme NDC component.

The interactive discussion touched on the NDC update process related to climate change mitigation, adaptation, low carbon development and funding related issues as well as institutional setting and procedures, focusing on concentration of efforts and increasing sectoral ambitions.

Overall, the meeting served an effective platform for exchange of ideas between the national and international actors and laid fruitful ground for further discussions to enter a next stage of NDC updating process.