Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, during an environmental conference in Altai, Russia, said Armenia is extremely vulnerable to the threats posed by climate change.

“The consequences of climate change are expressed in the accelerated melting of glaciers, reduced precipitation, landslides, soil erosion and desertification,” Pashinyan stressed at the conference attended by the government heads of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Pashinyan said Armenia faces a lack of water resources, thus propelling his administration to monitor water use efficiency and the introduction of innovative irrigation technologies.

He described Armenia as a bio-diversity rich country that has implemented programs to restore wild animal populations, noting his government’s cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature to restore the country’s Caucasian leopard population.

Pashinyan said Armenia will spare no efforts to make the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), to will be held in Armenia in 2026, a success.

He said that a new draft of Armenia’s “Law On Climate” has been drafted that aims to create a legal and institutional basis for the development and implementation of climate policy in the country.