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On February 24-25, the Winter Meetings of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) were held. At the online meeting of the OSCE PA General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment the member of the RA NA delegation to OSCE PA Maria Karapetyan gave a speech, noting:

“Dear colleagues,

I would like to thank Ambassador Hasani and Madame Rosik for their addresses.

I would also like to thank the rapporteur of the third Committee, Gudrun Kugler, for presenting her vision for the report of the third Committee. I was also present at the February 4 web dialogue on the clean energy revolution and appreciate very much how Dr. Kugler collected the input from all the participants, and I am sure that will be the case with today’s meeting.

I would like to share how I see Armenia’s progress on today’s agenda item.

Armenia is not a fossil fuel producer, and the transition to carbon neutrality is very naturally a principle of our aims for energy security and green growth.

The Paris Climate Agreement asks from each country Nationally Determined Contributions which are non-binding yet important commitments by countries to mitigate climate change. Last year Armenia renewed its Nationally Determined Contributions. In our region, Armenia and Georgia are the two countries that have taken up such voluntary commitments.

Armenia already uses about 80 percent of its available hydroelectric power resources and in the energy balance of Armenia hydropower amounts to more than 30 percent which keeps our carbon footprint considerably low.

Our goal is to make the share of solar energy 15 percent of the total energy production by 2030 and to make the share of zero-emission power generation 54 percent of the total power generation.

There is one particular legislative development that I am very much looking forward to: it is the provision of access to power grids for small-scale producers, including consumers, who have installed solar and wind power generating plants to meet their own needs, to sell electricity in the market.

One last comment would be that I see my country’s democratic development and green energy as two interconnected agendas and in opposition with authoritarianism, petrodollars and conflict perpetuation. This is especially important in view of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the South Caucasus. Green economy cannot cover up the destruction caused by Azerbaijan’s petrodollars and the weapons it has bought.”