A new study of public and private expenditure on environment - with a particular focus on biodiversity and climate change adaptation - is to be carried out for Kyrgyzstan.

The work will be carried out with the Poverty and Environment Initiative and the UN Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative. It will support earlier assessments carried out by the Ministry of Finance focusing solely on direct environmental and biodiversity expenditure.

The study’s results “should serve as a tool to quantify the environment and biodiversity financing deficit at national level and assist in the development of integrated strategies for resource mobilization,” the country’s State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Zuura Bayamanova announced at a stakeholder workshop held on 14-16 February.

During the event, the review methodology was discussed between the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economics and other public institution stakeholders, the German development agency GIZ, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, educational institutions, civil society and the UN Development Programme. In the consultations, ways to identify environmental costs, important stakeholders for the study and an integrated communication and engagement strategy were considered.

An environmental communication training programme for press secretaries was also held as part of the event. There, Rosalind Goodrich – Head of Research Communications at the International Institute for Environment and Development - highlighted the need for effective communication about the environment.

"Attention is currently focused on the country’s development and well-being of people's lives, but at the same time, we must pay attention to protecting the environment for future generations so that the well-being of our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren is also considered,” she argued.

Following these first steps taken by Kyrgyzstan, we can expect that they will soon be charging ahead to a future with clear evidence of the benefits of green finance.

For more information please contact nara.luvsan@unep.org