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Tajikistan

ReachingTipping Point? Climate Change and Poverty in Tajikistan

Summary

The people of Tajikistan, a small, mountainous country in Central Asia, are experiencing the impacts of climate change. More frequent droughts and heightened extreme weather conditions are hitting poor communities, eroding their resilience. The country's glaciers are melting, bringing the danger, in the future, of greater water shortages and even disputes in the wider region. Last summer's unusually good rains and consequent harvest brought some relief to rural communities across Tajikistan but the long-term trends are clear - and ominous.

Tajikistan's plight highlights the international injustice of climate change. Tajikistan is one of the countries least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. It ranks around 109th in the world for all greenhouse gas emissions and 129th in emissions per capita; its people emit less than 1 tonne of carbon dioxide per head, compared to nearly 20 tons by citizens of North America.

The government of Tajikistan recognises the fact and importance of climate change and its impacts, but it faces serious challenges in terms of funding and lack of capacity to cope with such a potentially overwhelming phenomenon. Increased funding for research on the impacts of climate change is urgently needed. Planning in high-risk environments requires investments that are beyond the financing capacities of most governments acting alone.

"It's not crisis point yet but it will be soon"

Timur Idrisov, NGO, Little Earth, October 2009.

This Oxfam report is based on interviews undertaken in communities in Spitamen and Ganchi in the north and Vose, Fakhor and Temurmalik in the south in October 2009. It gives an insight into how poor men and women are experiencing climate change, what challenges they are currently facing - and will continue to face in the future. It makes suggestions for what they say needs to happen to help them cope better with climate change.

This report draws attention to the plight of poor communities in Tajikistan, and also highlights

Oxfam's demands for a climate change deal that is both fair and safe - that agrees both the drastic cuts that are necessary in greenhouse gas emissions and the new funds that developing countries like Tajikistan need to adapt. Oxfam considers the United Nations conference on climate change at Copenhagen a missed opportunity, and the Accord that came out of it, a "climate shame". The talks were characterized by chaos and near-collapse. The pursuit of national interest by the major powers deepened the mistrust between developed, developing and industrializing countries. 2010 may be the last chance for these climate negotiations to prove they are an effective process for stopping climate change by delivering a fair, ambitious and binding deal. The time for action is now.