Outlook on Climate Change Adaptation in the South Caucasus Mountains

Overview of Presence of Climate Adaptation and Mountain Regions in Current Sectoral Strategies (Strategies under development or ones with expired term are not considered in the table)

Armenia

Armenia*

Azerbaijan

Georgia

Observed M

Scenarios

A

M

A

M

A

Temperature Extreme temperature (+) Precipitation Extreme precipitation National Environmental Action Plan Biodiversity Water Desertification Forestry Agriculture Environment Transport, Infrastructure, Communication Energy Tourism Industry Human Health Natural Disasters N/A N/A N/A N/A No Yes No No N/A N/A N/A N/A Yes No N/A N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes** Yes** No No No No Yes Yes No No No No N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A No No Yes No N/A N/A

Yes

Yes

Buynuz, Azerbaijan

Yes**

Yes**

N/A

N/A

Another characteristic of the sectoral policies reviewed is that most of the strategy documents do not provide specific climate change adaptation measures or activities, or only contain declarative references to climate change/adaptation. This can be explained by a lack of comprehensive, detailed and locally applicable research on the issue. For this reason, many strategy documents call for further assessments and studies to be undertaken on climate resilience and adaptation issues. The table on the left presents an inventory of climate change adaptation activities and existing references to mountain regions and ecosystems in sectoral policies in force in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as of October 2015. It is worth noting that only two strategy documents make specific reference to climate change adaptation in mountain regions.

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

No

No

No

Some actions/measures consider mountain regions, without explicitly stating this as most of Armenia can be considered as mountainous Mentioned in a single concept * **

- Adaptation in development strategies - Mountain regions A M

Increasing tren Sources : Second National Communication of Azerbaijan, 2010; Communication of Georgia, 2015; ENVSEC and UNDP, 2011.

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