Page 34 - Small Stans Outlook 2023

7.6 Climate Crisis - Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan in 2022 several times came to the attention of
international climate crisis activists who’d previously hardly heard of the
remote republic in Central Asia. Several analyses, based on ‘spy in the
sky’ readings taken by Nasa and other satellites showed how
Turkmenistan was a “super emitter” of methane, a potent greenhouse
gas (GHG), which often leaks from oil and gas infrastructure. EU and
other efforts are under way to persuade Ashgabat to take the matter of
ending these leaks with the utmost seriousness, but there has been little
but silence on the matter from the Turkmens so far.

In December, EnergyMonitor reported that Turkmenistan had been
ranked first on a top 10 list for the world’s dirtiest electricity grids.

Four months earlier, Ashgabat was included on a ‘worst 10’ ranking of
big cities whose populations are exposed to the world’s highest levels of
nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution, typically caused by traffic pollution. The
ranking featured in The State of the Global Air, a study published
annually by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Just prior to the release of that ranking, Hong Kong-based nonprofit
environmental organisation Earth.org identified Central Asia as a region
that is among the most vulnerable to desertification caused by climate
change.

The summer brought complaints from Ashgabat residents that tap water
had been switched off amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures to
more than 40 degrees Celsius in the shade.

34 Small Stans 2023 www.intellinews.com