DUSHANBE, 25.09.2022 (NIAT Khovar) – On September 23 on the margins of UN General Assembly, Tajikistan in collaboration with the Netherlands, Pakistan, Canada, Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Argentina, and Tanzania, as well as UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDESA, the World Meteorological Organization, and UN-Water organized a high-level side event entitled “The Melting Cryosphere: Threats to Groundwater Buffering of Streamflow and the Sustainability of Water Resource Management Including in SIDS.”

This special event was put together in order to emphasize the importance of scientific cooperation and connecting scientific research, policy development, and action, and to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on glaciers and water. This event included a high-level panel at the ministerial level and an expert session with the scientists as a panelist from each part of the world.

The event was opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Muhriddin, who in his speech highlighted the impact of climate change caused by melting glaciers and the importance of this critical issue.

Muhriddin spoke about the timely initiative championed by President Emomali Rahmon to declare 2025 as the International Year of Glacier Preservation and called the member states to support and implement this initiative.

To bring this proposal to life, Tajikistan and its partner countries are preparing a draft resolution titled “International Year of Glaciers Preservation 2025” for the second Committee of the UN General Assembly this year.

The event was followed by statements by the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of Netherlands, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, head of the Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Policy for the Dominican Republic, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Argentina, State Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Assistant Director-General for the Natural Sciences UNESCO, Assistant-Secretary-General UN DESA, Vice-Chair of UN-Water and Dr. Nisreen El-Hashemite of the Royal Academy of Sciences International Trust.

Participants welcomed Tajikistan’s proposal to declare 2025 as an International Year for Glaciers Preservation and expressed their readiness to work with Tajikistan and other stakeholders to implement this initiative.

The event was attended by representatives of over 90 UN member states and was virtually attended by stakeholders and partners around the world.