"World Bank's New Climate Report: Armenia Must Significantly Raise Its Climate Mitigation Ambitions in Near Future", 18 June 2025

On June 13, the World Bank Group held the launch of the “Country Climate and Development Report for Armenia” in Yerevan...

According to the report, Armenia’s electricity, heating, and transport sectors rely heavily on natural gas, and the country’s energy intensity relative to GDP is higher than the global average. Natural gas accounts for about 63% of Armenia’s total energy supply—one of the highest shares in the world—and all of it is imported, mainly from the Russian Federation, creating significant vulnerability to external shocks. Due to the large share of natural gas, Armenia’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita are below the global average: in 2019, they amounted to 3.8 tCO₂e per person. The energy sector is the main source of emissions (two-thirds), followed by agriculture...

According to the report, decarbonization would also improve air quality and help halt severe land and forest degradation...

Land degradation is high and is exacerbated by rapid deforestation. About 70% of Armenia’s forests are degraded due to mining, illegal logging, and the rural population’s heavy dependence on firewood for heating...

Regarding the water sector, the report states that Armenia is already under “water stress.” In the Ararat Valley, groundwater extraction for industrial-scale fish farming and irrigation exceeds the annual natural replenishment rate...

Increasing resilience and productivity in the agriculture sector could help the country avoid an increase in poverty by 2.7 percentage points by 2030 compared to a baseline scenario with current gas prices...

...if Armenia does not undertake additional reforms, it will not reach its 2050 GHG emissions target as stated in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)...