Kyrgyzstan views cooperation with the Green Climate Fund as a central plank of its development, one of the mountainous country’s top diplomats told the Fund’s Executive Director Howard Bamsey today.

“My country is implementing solutions to deal with this international problem, but we will need to draw on international experience,” the Kyrgyz Republic’s Ambassador to Korea, Askar Beshimov, said during a meeting with Mr Bamsey at GCF headquarters in Songdo, Korea.

“The Kyrgyz Republic’s Prime Minister Sooronbay Jeenbekov has told me that cooperation with GCF is one of the biggest goals in formulating our road map of long-term development.”

Kyrgyzstan is exploring opportunities with the Fund to come up with ways to deal with the onset of climate change, which Mr Beshimov said was already causing problems from melting glaciers and degraded grazing pastures.

Mr Bamsey agreed with the importance of integrating climate change into long-term national development plans.

“The Kyrgyz Republic’s Nationally Determined Contribution which it brought to the UN Paris climate change meeting in 2015 offers an important starting point,” he said. “This then allows for the inclusion of climate and its implications into broader economic plans.”

Mr Bamsey highlighted the potential of GCF’s Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme to assist Kyrgyzstan put together its adaptation plans, with a funding limit of USD 3 million per country.

Kyrgyzstan, a land-locked nation where mountains account for over 90 percent of its terrain, is considered one of the most vulnerable Central Asian nations to climate change. Decreasing water supplies have reportedly made traditional farming increasingly difficult.