Azerbaijan joins $250 million project to tackle glacier melting impacts

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved $250 million in financing for the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) flagship Glaciers to Farms program — a large-scale initiative aimed at helping countries in Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Pakistan adapt to the effects of glacier melt.

According to ADB, cited by domestic media, the program’s primary goal is to build sustainable water and agricultural systems for vulnerable communities that rely heavily on glacial meltwater for irrigation, drinking water, and energy generation. Azerbaijan is among the participating countries in the initiative.

The GCF contribution will be provided mainly as grants and will support a series of projects proposed by the participating states. These projects will be jointly financed with the $3.25 billion that ADB plans to invest over the next decade.

The Glaciers to Farms program brings together nine developing nations — Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In all of these countries, agriculture and daily life depend significantly on rivers sustained by glacial melt and seasonal snowmelt.

ADB experts warn that the rapid melting of glaciers poses an increasing threat to water security, agriculture, and energy production, putting millions of livelihoods at risk in regions where roughly one in four people are employed in agriculture.

By Tamilla Hasanova