Central Asian Legal and Policy Responses to Climate Change

Legal and policy responses to climate change in Central Asian countries are in its early stages, albeit progressing at a fast speed. All countries in the region have adopted soft law instruments on climate change, such as strategies, plans of action for implementing strategies or sectoral action plans for adaptation and mitigation. But Central Asian countries have not introduced substantive laws on climate change, instead they have incorporated their mitigation and adaptation objectives into their policies of national development strategies, and mainstreamed the issue across the sectors and are implementing related targets providing financial support to climate change related activities. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan have more coherent legal and policy responses to climate change in the region. This article finds that in general countries’ frameworks related to mitigations are more advanced, nevertheless, in recent time adaptation policies are increasingly improving. Also, this article finds that regional entities are progressively involving in the development and implementation of climate change policies, as well as, some marginal involvement are occurring at sub-national level. This article finds that implementation of policies remains challenging due to the budget allocation. Finally, this article concludes that due to the strong impacts of climate change in the region, laws and policies on adaptation measures with ample financial mechanisms should be developed.