Regional Workshop on an Accounting Approach to Climate Change and Biodiversity for Central Asia and the Caucasus

High quality, consistent data on the environment-economy nexus is needed to inform effective pathways for addressing climate change, biodiversity losses and related issues. National statistical offices (NSOs) in the Central Asia and the Caucasus have expressed strong interest in compiling various SEEA accounts, including taking steps towards compiling energy and air emission accounts which are among the most relevant accounts for informing climate change. With the recent adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), demand by users for ecosystem accounts will increase and the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting is the methodological base for several headline indicators of the GBF. Ecosystem accounts inform biodiversity as well as climate change related issues. There is a need to strengthen the capacities of NSOs to produce and disseminate SEEA accounts to better meet the needs of users for high quality integrated data on climate change, biodiversity and the economy.

The Regional Workshop on Accounting Approach to Climate Change and Biodiversity for Central Asia and the Caucasus was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic on 9-12 September 2024. The workshop, organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), with the support of the Office of the Director-General for Policy Planning on Statistical Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Government of Japan, and in collaboration with the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic aimed to further build capacities in Central Asia and the Caucasus for the compilation of SEEA accounts relevant to climate change and biodiversity.