The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister Anna Mazmanyan, Head of the Department of International Cooperation Ruzanna Grigoryan.
Welcoming his colleagues at the Ministry of Environment, Minister Petrosyan congratulated Ms. Geghinat on her appointment and expressed confidence that under her leadership, the World Bank (WB) office in Armenia will set a higher bar for efficiency.
Before discussing the issues on the agenda of the meeting, the Minister presented all the ongoing reforms in the field, which may be of interest to the World Bank:
- Climate change risk management
- Use of mineral resources
- Improvement of the EIA system
- Improvement of the environmental monitoring system
- Sustainable forest management
- Restoring the ecological balance of Lake Sevan
The Minister Romanos Petrosyan touched upon the upcoming 26th Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow - #COP26. Armenia attaches great importance to the climate agenda and the opportunity to become a part of it. The Minister said that Armenia will be represented at the forum in a fairly inclusive staff and with a broad agenda.
The Minister noted that the Ministry of Environment is interested in the possibility of somehow implementing in our country the experience and resources of grouped countries in combating climate change, in increasing resilience and adaptation to climate change, as well as comprehensive measures and programs aimed at implementing the concept of ecology-external debt.
During the meeting, the issue of subsoil use in Armenia, the efforts of the Ministry of Environment aimed at streamlining this area and the establishment of the Institute of EIA were touched upon.
The Minister presented to his colleagues the government's decision On establishing the procedure for using the environmental protection fund and calculating the size of allocations, which will significantly improve the course of decision-making on the provision, partial provision or non-provision of the amount allocated from the fund in accordance with the estimated values of the works adopted by the relevant executive acts for the purpose of reclamation works to the subsoil user, the efficiency of spending amounts from the fund for the purpose of reclamation works will increase.
During the meeting, they also discussed the draft amendments to the RA Law "on environmental impact assessment and assessment".