Your trusted source

Climate change expert Irina Ghaplanyan warned of Armenia’s vulnerability to climate change as she addressed a conference titled “The Impact of Azerbaijan’s Aggression on Human Rights and Environmental Protection,” a side event of COP29 organized independently in Armenia on Thursday.

“Armenia is very vulnerable to climate change. We’ve already witnessed a 1.3 degrees Celsius increase in temperatures which has affected every ecosystem and human livelihoods,” the expert underlined.

“We’ve already seen a 9 percent decrease in precipitation and this has impacted virtually every sector in our economy,” she added.

Ghaplanyan stated that Armenia currently suffers because of fossil fuel-based economy which is driven by imports, as well as major air pollution.

"Protecting environment is not an option, it's everyone's mandate. By doing so, we protect human life, dignity and future of our generations. It's not a coincidence that we connect climate change to climate justice and human rights because environment and our biosphere is a public good and it's everyone's mandate to protect it," she concluded.