Green Economy Week 2019, being held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 11-17 November 2019, aims to promote "green" initiatives that improve quality of life, social justice and the efficient use of resources, as well as the wider application of environmentally sound technologies and innovations.
Convening under the theme Green Economy – Strong Regions – Sustainable Development of the Country", the week of sessions and activities will also raise public awareness on green economy issues, provide an opportunity to focus attention and efforts of all stakeholders on the priority sectors of the green economy, and identify potential interventions and coordination among stakeholders, specifically for the regional development of Kyrgyzstan.
A total of 37 events will be held across the country, including one on natural capital accounting in Kyrgyzstan. This event is supported by the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP) and organized by the American University of Central Asia in cooperation with the National Statistics Committee of Kyrgyz Republic and German aid agency GIZ.
Natural capital accounting is suitable to generate a sound understanding of the current state and economic potential of land assets in Kyrgyzstan and provide a framework to include in the country’s System of National Accounts. As such, Kyrgyzstan is one of the pilot countries in the GIZ’s Economics of Land Degradation initiative in collaboration with GGKP.
New ideas and proposals for developing the green economy for sustainable development will be presented in a special plenary session at the Green Forum 2019, which will be held on 15 November. The Global Partnership for Action in Green Economy (PAGE) is partnering with GIZ to support the Green Forum, which serves as the annual high-level dialogue to raise awareness and understanding of a common country-wide green economy approach, and to convene national and international stakeholders for in-depth strategic and technical discussions.
In early 2018, the Kyrgyz Parliament adopted the “Concept of Kyrgyzstan as a Green Economy Country”, a first step in the formal policy process assigning the government to develop a green economy programme. This led to a National Programme and Action Plan (2019-2023) to ensure the country’s inclusive green economy transition, which integrates gender concerns and is directly aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The plan, developed jointly with the UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative, includes climate change needs, commitments and actions on green agriculture, transport, energy, education, sustainable procurement, finance and fiscal policy.
The two key policy milestones have been directly supported by PAGE through the establishment of a national inter-agency and cross-disciplinary expert group, as well as inter-ministerial coordination led by the Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan. With PAGE’s support, national expertise is also being drawn on to mainstream inclusive green economy principles into the long-term National Development Strategy 2040 and the five-year development programme.
With PAGE support, the Kyrgyz government is advancing several sectoral and thematic initiatives designed to further strengthen and implement the guiding policy frameworks. These include the design of national green economy and green jobs modelling systems, policy planning and a green jobs assessment, a demonstration pilot on resource efficiency in the metal industry building on a green industry assessment, the design of a green urban planning system, and review of legislation for sustainable public procurement.