On January 13, the first meeting of the Working Group on updating of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Kyrgyz Republic, chaired by Minister of Economy Sanjar Mukanbetov, was held at the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Interagency Working Group on NDC update includes the KR Ministry of Economy, the KR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Health, the Hydrometeorology Agency under the KR Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Climate Finance Center, UNDP, UNEP-GEF, GIZ and others.

The Minister of Economy of the KR noted the importance of interaction and cooperation in joint efforts to combat climate change and to prepare NDCs in the second quarter of 2021.

In her opening speech, Lira Joldubaeva, UNDP KR representative, emphasized the importance that each country, city, financial institutions and companies should adopt plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to keep the average temperature rise at 1.5-2°C, and the need to quickly implement far-reaching changes to close the gap between the Paris Agreement goals and current trends in greenhouse gas emissions.

At the Working Group meeting, Project Coordinator Baktygul Ysabekova made a presentation of the UNDP Climate Promise Project under which the NDC update process is implemented. Information on international requirements to NDC update, preliminary results of the national greenhouse gas inventory, design plans for NDC main areas, long-term country development strategies, gender aspects, monitoring and transparency frameworks, and mitigation and adaptation costs were also presented. In the final session, based on the information received the Working Group discussed the NDC Update Activity Plan.

Background: Climate change is a global threat to humanity, which can affect the lives of people around the world and the development of countries. Climate change and its acceleration can already in the near future adversely impact energy, industry, infrastructure, agriculture, and natural resources.

The Kyrgyz Republic, like many other countries in the global community, by ratifying the Paris Agreement in November 2019, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a cause of climate change, by between 11.5% and 13.8%, and confirmed its intention to transform economic activities to a low-carbon model and to increase climate resilience. These commitments translate into the provision of NDCs, which bring together each country's efforts on reduction of national emissions and climate change adaptation. NDCs shall be updated every five years. The country plans to develop updated national measures that contribute to achieving the Paris Agreement goals in the spring of 2021. They will be presented at the 26^th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC to be held in November 2021 in Glasgow, UK.

The NDC process is supported by UNDP as well as other development partners, and expert consultation support is provided as part of the technical assistance.