Moldova to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 70 per cent till 2030, agriculture minister says

Chisinau, 12 December /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova has got actively involved in the global process concerning the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions. The country committed to achieve the unconditional target of 67-per cent cut in the net emissions of greenhouse gas against the level of 1990 till 2030, Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Minister Ion Perju has said. The official participates in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), held in Madrid, Spain, this week.    

According to the official, the commitment to cut the emissions might increase to 78 per cent conditionally, in line with a global financial mechanism, which would tackle important aspects, such as the providing of financial resources, transfer of technologies and technical cooperation. “Presently, Moldova started the process of revising the National Determined Contribution. In the new document, planned to be submitted to the Convention’s Secretariat in February 2020, decision-makers intend to considerably increase the ambitiousness of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions,” Ion Perju specified.      

In the context, the minister stressed that “to improve Moldova’s capacity to adapt to the climate changes and risks management systems in case of disasters, more resources and investments are needed.” “This fact explains the country’s openness for the international financing programmes for attenuating the climate changes and adaptation actions,” Perju noted.

“Moldova supports COP-25 Agenda and deems as crucial that the participants in the current meeting finish the process of working out the mechanisms of enforcing the Paris Agreement, so that it could be fully functional in 2020. Moldova, as Party to the Convention, fully commits to achieve the national goals as to attenuating the climate changes and we are sure that the result of this conference, based on the political impetus, will be a success,” Agriculture, regional Development and Environment Minister Ion Perju said at the UN Conference in Madrid.   

Given that Moldova’s area is relatively small, the country is pretty vulnerable to the extreme climate phenomena – droughts, sharp air temperature fluctuations, torrential rains, storms, floods, etc. For these reasons, Moldova is one of the most disadvantaged countries of Europe, with a high degree of vulnerability to such changes. More than a half of the country’s residents live in rural areas and about one third of the labour force is employed in agriculture. The droughts from 2007 and 2012 alone triggered losses estimated at about 1 billion dollars and, respectively, 1.25 billion dollars. The floods from 2008 caused Moldova damages worth about 120 million dollars and the ones from 2010 had an adverse economic impact on the Gross Domestic Product of 0.15 per cent, with the overall damages estimated at about 42 million dollars.