DUSHANBE, February 18, 2010, Asia-Plus — The people of Tajikistan are experiencing the impacts of climate change; more frequent droughts and heightened extreme weather conditions are hitting poor communities, eroding their resilience and the country’s glaciers are melting, bringing the danger, in the future, of greater water shortages and potential disputes in the wider region, the Oxfam report, Reaching Tipping Point? Climate Change and Poverty in Tajikistan, notes.
Last summer’s unusually good rains and consequent harvest brought some relief to rural communities across Tajikistan but the long-term trends are clear – and ominous.
This report is based on interviews undertaken in communities in Spitamen and Ghonchi in the north and Vose, Farkhor, and Temurmalik in the south in October 2009. It gives an insight into how poor men and women are experiencing climate change, and what challenges they are currently facing – and will continue to face in the future. It makes recommendations on what needs to happen to help them cope better with climate change.
Tajikistan’s plight highlights the international injustice of climate change. Tajikistan is one of the countries least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, the report said. It ranks around 109th in the world for all greenhouse gas emissions and 129th in emissions per capita; its people emit less than 1 ton of carbon dioxide per head, compared to nearly 20 tons by citizens of North America.
According to the report, the government of Tajikistan recognizes the fact and importance of climate change and its impacts, but it faces serious challenges in terms of funding and lack of capacity to cope with such a potentially overwhelming phenomenon. Increased funding for research on the impacts of climate change is urgently needed. Planning in high-risk environments requires investments that are beyond the financing capacities of most governments acting alone.
Key recommendations:
– At a community level: improve access to water and methods of food storage and preservation. Provide more support and training in agricultural techniques and marketing. Scale up better insulation of houses, use of energy efficient stoves, biogas, solar power and use of passive solar greenhouses;
– At a national level: support farmers to adapt and have more resilient livelihood strategies; iintegrate climate change response across government departments and into national planning; strengthen disaster risk reduction programs; implement research programs on climate change and its impacts;
– At regional and international level: negotiations must get straight back on track to achieve a fair, ambitious, and binding deal in 2010 to tackle climate change; rich countries need to provide $200 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt and reduce their own emissions. In Central Asia, institutions for regional co-operation must be strengthened, in particular to monitor and manage water resources in the light of glacial melt, higher temperatures and increases in water scarcity.
