Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index for Turkmenistan.
Classified as an upper middle income country, its success has relied on exporting its rich hydrocarbon reserves. The rapid economic growth the country has experienced since 1994 has come with a steady growth in emissions. However, as a desertic, water-strained country, it is highly vulnerable to climate change. It thus approved the National Climate Change Strategy in June 2012 outlining policies for developing climate resilience and a low emission economy.
In 2015, the government announced its intention to contribute to the global climate change mitigation efforts under the Paris Agreement. The key feature of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) is a reduction in projected 2030 per-capita emissions from 22.3 to 20.8 tCO2/eq. The ~18MtCO2/eq total reduction by the assigned date places Turkmenistan’s national emissions at #66 out of 195 countries.
- Highly vulnerable to climate change, Turkmenistan announced its commitment to a low emission future in 2012
- Despite its reliance on hydrocarbon export, it submitted its NDC under the Paris Agreement in 2015, agreeing to reduce per capita emissions.
- The bulk of its efforts will be in developing climate resilience for its population and key economic sectors, which include oil and gas, but crucially agriculture.
Global Sustainability Main Page.
References:
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Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
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Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
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Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
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Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
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Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
