Climate changes that have become evident all over the globe are intensively discussed nowadays. Human activity over more than half a century resulted in the drastic increase of amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which has had significant effect on climate changes.

During the last 130 years, temperature over the world has risen by about 0.85 degree, and the process of global warming has accelerated considerably over the last 25 years. The sea level is rising, glaciers are melting and the character of precipitation is changing. Natural disasters have become more intense and frequent. Effects of extreme weather - warm winters, hot summers days, floods and other - have become more pronounced.

It goes without saying that Armenia could not remain untouched by these global environmental processes; climate changes are well noticeable in our country as well. In the recent years, temperature increase by about 1.3 degrees has been recorded; desertification areas have expanded, river flows have reduced, and the number of forest fires has been unprecedented and causing great damage to the biodiversity of Armenia.

In cooperation with local authorities, WWF Armenia works to prevent adverse effects caused by climate changes, fights against illegal forest felling, and implements forest resilience improvement projects.   

Reduction of forest areas in turn has great impact on climate changes. To mitigate the problem, WWF-Armenia has implemented a regional project entitled "Increased Resilience of Forest Ecosystems to Climate Changes in the Southern Caucasus Countries by Means of Forest Transformation". The Project is intended to improve resilience of forests to the changing climate (see more details in section FOREST).

As a result of a series of measures, more resilient forests would gain the capacity to withstand on their own such climate fluctuations as droughts, frosts and floods, thus contributing to biodiversity conservation. The realized activities have improved the rates of carbon storage resources and resilience against climate change. Apart from all this, social-economic situation at the communities has been improved by creating new jobs and through other measures.

Moreover, WWF has been leading efforts to improve the rate of awareness about the negative effects of climate change through cooperation with educational institutions, local communities and public organizations. Community population is being informed about the challenges determined by climate change impacts and understands better the importance of its contribution in the mitigation of those impacts.

Within the frameworks of the "Leopard Conservation in Armenia” Project, a 7.5 KW capacity solar plant was installed on the roof of a secondary school in the settlement of Nrnadzor that falls within the consolidated community of Meghri. During winter months, the plant provides the power needed for heating of that local school in full scope. In the meantime, during summer months the same plant enables the school to store solar energy and to use it later to meet the power supply needs of the school and the community. Installation of the plant was of great importance for the school, as until that teaching process had been interrupted from time to time in winter because of insufficient heating of the school building. The same Project helped to resolve conservation problems and addressed also the social concerns.

In the context of addressing climate change problems, the entire world has been gradually attaching more importance to energy efficiency and introduction of renewable energy resources. As indicated above, these lines are of primary importance also in meeting economy-related and social needs.

It must be commented that energy-saving street lighting systems were installed at 8 communities of Armenia.