UNEP-IEMP organized a consultation workshop on enhancing climate information services and early warning for resilience on October 21-23rd, 2019 in Beijing. This workshop brought in around 30 experts from Green Climate Fund(GCF), UN Environment Programme(UNEP), China and Central Asia countries to exchange information and  brainstorm on opportunities and concrete ideas for South-South cooperation on climate information and early warning for resilience through GCF and UNEP.  

This dry Central Asia region is most vulnerable to significant impacts caused by climate change and inappropriate human activities, and is an important focus of the Pan-Third Pole region. With GCF`s sharing and clarification on application guidelines, the workshop had extensive discussion on Central Asia`s climate vulnerability and challenges, technical and capacity gaps, priorities for climate finance etc. This workshop also shared China`s extensive experiences on early warning of climate induced muti-hazards, restoration for land degradation and sand dust storm, big data and remote sensing, long term ecosystem monitoring and assessment, water and agriculture development. These knowledge and experiences is valued for regional knowledge sharing and learning under the new GCF readiness programme guideline . 

The workshop identified a few common regional issues to be tackled jointly with Chinese experts` engagement and south-south cooperation. These include monitoring climate risks and emergency in the Aral Sea basin, capacity building and early warning, water management and agriculture development among others. UNEP-IEMP would continue to work closely with the governments of Central Asia, Science Division and Central Asia office of UNEP and GCF secretariat to promote cooperation in the Central Asia region.