Caspian Sea: State of the Environment 2019

take account of the impact of climate change in the environmental policy that is deployed in the coastal marine areas of the Caspian region. Conservation of the marine and coastal environ- ment of the Caspian Sea in the twenty-first cen- tury will be the most important challenge for in- ternational environmental cooperation between the Caspian littoral states under the auspices of the Tehran Convention.

2016/2017, it had been falling continuously since 2006, while the water temperature has risen 0.06 degrees per year over the last 30 years. Measures to respond to these issues have been taken at several levels. The first legally binding step to establish and improve international coop- eration between the Caspian Sea states was the ratification of the Tehran Convention in 2006. Since then, policies and legislation on air pol- lution, fishing and wastewater have been imple- mented at the national and bilateral levels. Another key achievement is the progress that has been made in using compliance monitoring tools to facilitate international cooperation, provid- ing governments and the public with important information. The results of national monitoring are made public so that they are accessible to all. For instance, the development of new tools such as the CEIC portal enables governments and ex- perts to update data on the Caspian Sea on an ongoing basis, and to access the information sup- plied by others. This portal is expected to become a multilateral cooperation tool. Finally, the governments of the Caspian litto- ral states encourage participation and outreach. NGO awareness campaigns and educational initiatives by universities and nature reserves are essential for public awareness. These efforts are also in line with the principles of the Aarhus Convention, to which Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are all Parties. To embed cur- rent standards in everyday practice, effectively preserve the Caspian Sea and fulfil the obliga- tions set out in the Tehran Convention, several aspects of international cooperation will need to be improved. Some technical changes are expected in the near future, including the introduction of modern economic mechanisms and best available tech- nologies in industrial production, the establish- ment of a unified Caspian system of specially protected areas and marine and coastal protected areas and regional economic development plan- ning. The Caspian littoral states will also need to

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