Hakob Simidyan, Minister of the Environment of the RA, Vahe Ghalumyan, Committee Chair of the Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment Protection, Pablo Vieira, Global Director of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Partnership Support Unit, Frank Hess, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Armenia, Natia Natsvlishvili, UNDP Resident Representative to Armenia, John Gallagher Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Armenia, representatives of interested departments and international organizations participated in the event.
Minister Hakob Simidyan gave the opening speech and referred to the steps and progress made by Armenia in the climate agenda.
"The Republic of Armenia strives to reduce the impact of climate change in its country and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases on a global scale. For this reason, our country has ratified a number of international agreements and is committed to fulfilling its obligations. In order to establish a legal and institutional framework for the development and implementation of climate policy in the country, in 2022, the Ministry of Environment initiated the development of the RA Law "On Climate". At the same time, as part of its mitigation commitments, the Government has taken and is taking active steps towards developing adaptation policies and measures in the country to enhance the country's resilience to a changing climate. The Ministry of Environment is working extensively on building Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Convention in order to form an institutional structure on climate policy and measures from the concerned departments," noted the minister.
Pablo Vieira, Global Director of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Partnership Support Unit, Nona Budoyan, Head of the Climate Policy Department of the Ministry of Environment and Hayrapet Hakobyan, In-Country Facilitator for Armenia and UNDP Expert gave speeches.
The speeches were followed by panel discussions aimed at summarizing the  policy and programmatic actions, climate financing issues and identified needs arising from the long-term (until 2050) development strategy of the NDC and the  RA with low greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of the upcoming NDC 3.0 forum, as well as to summarize the priority issues of the national adaptation programme and the sectoral and regional adaptation programmes, as well as the sectoral strategies and programmes aimed at the development of climate resilience and their progress and gaps.
The NDC Partnership Support Unit and member institutions have presented a toolkit and initiatives aimed at creating the necessary technical, financial, institutional and monitoring prerequisites for climate change mitigation and adaptation.