Moldova among most vulnerable European countries to climate changes - study

Chisinau, 1 December /MOLDPRES/ - The warmest month of September in the history of meteorological measurements in more European countries was registered in 2023. Moldova is not an exception. According to scientific sources, Moldova is among the most vulnerable European countries to the climate changes. The statements are contained in an editorial signed by European Union’s Ambassador Jānis Mažeiks and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Moldova Daniela Gasparikova, in the context of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), held in Dubai on 30 November -12 December.      

In the last ten years, the monitoring of the meteorological configurations showed a worrying tendency of increase in temperatures and insufficiency of precipitation. The observations from the autumn of 2023 confirm these patterns, as well as the projections as to a more intense and destructive impact of the climate changes on the medium- and long-term social, economic and ecological aspects. They estimate that the agricultural sector, which is an important source of income and food for the rural population, is to be worst hit by this phenomenon, the authors said.       

„The global community prepares for adopting enhanced goals and responsibilities in combating the global warming, as well as to identify and assess the climate measures which have been already enforced. Among them, there is the urgent need to collective act at the world level, in order to limit the increase in temperature and adapt to the already existing effects of the climate changes. At COP28, the countries are to announce more ambitious commitments in the direction of the climate neutrality and to contribute to the achieving of the climate goal of limiting the global warming at 1.5°C, established at the world level, through an accomplishable approach. The investments in sustainability should be at least tripled annually up to about four trillion dollars in the next seven years, in order to achieve the climate neutrality till 2050,’’  the EU and UNDP official said in the editorial.          

According to the quoted source, greater efforts are needed, in order to attenuate and adapt to the climate changes. The First Global Summing Up will be presented at COP28, which is an inventory of actions of attenuating the climate changes, analyzed from the viewpoint of the evolution in time, as well as of the efficiency of the climate actions implemented so far. This summing up will identify the gaps and the actions which must be carried out till 2030, as well as afterwards, so that the world community solves the problem of climate changes. Moldova might take advantage of this opportunity and further invest in the key sectors of its economy, such as the agriculture, infrastructure or transport, in order to turn it resilient and adapted to the anticipated impact of the climate changes, especially by backing the most vulnerable communities. The achievement of this goal will require investment partnerships, which are to involve institutions from the public and private sectors, both from Moldova and international ones.     

„The success of the efforts of ensuring Moldova’s resilience to the climate changes will depend on the progress made in the implementation of the fundamental reforms on its way of accession to EU. First of all, we mean the reforms which regard the supremacy of law, in order to ensure the fair conditions for all citizens and the business environment in the adoption of the climate actions. Also, the reforms in the justice sector are essential, in order to allow an efficient settlement of complaints which regard including the problems on environment, as well as the advancement of the efforts on the dimension of fighting corruption, in order to avoid the waste of the public financial resources, which might be used for a more efficient management of the impact of the climate changes. Eventually, they will be necessary, in order to edify a more inclusive, greener and more prosperous European Moldova, where nobody is excluded,’’ reads the article signed by Jānis Mažeiks and Daniela Gasparikova.