Press release on the Fifth Meeting of the Heads of SCO Environmental Ministries and Agencies

On 22 May 2024, Astana hosted the fifth meeting of the heads of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states’ ministries and agencies in charge of environmental protection.

The participants in the meeting included Inspector General of Forests at the India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change K. B. Singh, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of Kazakhstan Ali Akbar Jokar, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Nyssanbayev, Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China Qiu Qiwen, Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic Melis Turgunbaev, Deputy Minister of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Gillani Iftikhar-ul-Hassan, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation Sergei Anopriyenko, First Deputy Chair of the Environment Protection Committee within the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Zarafo Kiyomzoda, Minister of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan Aziz Abdukhakimov, Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus Sergei Maslyak, and SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming.

During the meeting, the heads of delegations exchanged views on the current state and prospects for stepping up cooperation on environmental protection among SCO member states, and noted that they had to carry out the Plan of Events for Implementing the Concept of Cooperation of the SCO Member States in the Field of Environmental Protection for 2025-2027, and viewed these efforts as an imperative. They also spoke out in favour of continuing their efforts to carry out the Plan of Events to hold the SCO Year of Ecology in 2024. In this context, Kazakhstan showed a video report on the environmental campaigns carried out by the member states this year.

The heads of delegations went on to advise the SCO Secretariat to submit, in due order, a draft Statement by the SCO Heads of State Council on Smart Waste Management for approval by the SCO Heads of State Council during its meeting on 3 and 4 July 2024 in Astana, along with submitting a Cooperation Agreement among SCO Member States’ Governments On Environmental Protection with the view of signing it once all the states complete the corresponding national procedures.

The participants then approved Joint SCO Approaches to Resolving Environmental Issues, a Joint Action Plan for implementing SCO’s Green Belt Project in 2024-2026, as well as the Plan of Events for Implementing the Concept of Cooperation of the SCO Member States in the Field of Environmental Protection for2025-2027.

The heads of delegations took note of the efforts to draft the rules of procedure for the SCO Special Working Group on Climate Change and expressed their intention to approve this document at one of the upcoming meetings.

The meeting took place in a business-like and constructive spirit and in an atmosphere of friendship, mutual trust and cooperation.