New York – On the sidelines of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, a briefing was held on preparations for the Regional Environmental Summit (RES), scheduled to take place in April 2026 in Astana.

Ivana Živković, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, highlighted Kazakhstan’s leadership in sustainable land use and the preservation of the Caspian Sea.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Yerlan Nysanbayev, presented a draft Five-Year Action Program (2026–2030) developed in partnership with the United Nations, aimed at promoting sustainable development and environmental security in Central Asia.

Saken Kalkamanov, Chairman of the Management Board of the International Green Technologies and Investment Projects Center (IGTIC), announced that an international green technologies exhibition will be held in Astana as a key event of the 2026 Regional Environmental Summit.

Strong support for Kazakhstan’s initiatives was expressed by Mukhtar Babayev, President of COP29 and Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan on Climate Issues, who underlined the importance of advancing green energy across the region.

Tatiana Molcean, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UNECE, stressed the need to scale up nature-based solutions and proposed conducting a regional review of environmental performance.

Jamil Ahmad, Deputy Director of the UNEP New York Office, confirmed the agency’s readiness to support Kazakhstan’s environmental and climate initiatives, as well as those of the wider region.

At the conclusion of the briefing, UN agencies expressed their support for the 2026–2030 Action Program and reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating with Kazakhstan on joint projects in sustainable development and climate policy.