7th Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership -Adaptation at Altitude: connecting the world’s mountains for knowledge exchange and climate action

26 March 2026, 13:00-14:30 CET

This side event was held in person during the 7th Global Meeting of the Mountain Partnership, hosted in Andorra de la Vella.

Aim

The main objectives of the side event were to: 

• Highlight how global processes, regional governance mechanisms, interregional exchange and science support resilient mountain community development at the regional level
• Share challenges, commonalities and impacts related to climate change adaptation in mountains and achievements of regional work around the world
• Identify shared goals between mountain regions for global policy processes (i.e UNFCCC SB64, COP31, CBD COP17)
• Share achievements around A@A’s approach (science-policy dialogue, inter-regional exchange) and discuss the way forward for mountain countries

About the Event

The side event had two unique parts to showcase different themes in an engaging format.

Part 1 took a storytelling (TedX style) approach: highlighting community voices from different mountain regions who are attending the 7th Global Meeting. Speakers from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and the Alpine region shared stories, images and cultural aspects from affected communities, sharing the importance of climate adaptation action in mountain areas. They also discussed how they have and may further benefit from transboundary governance, and a regional approach. This session highlighted shared challenges, such as changing water resources, natural hazards, food security, and cross-border collaboration.

Part 2 included representatives from the Adaptation at Altitude programme to relate key messages from the storytelling presentations to the work being done around the world on climate adaptation. This session highlighted notable activities of the Adaptation at Altitude programme and focused on concrete actions that can be taken in global policy processes and (inter)regional initiatives that may be pursued in the future. Participants were able to share ideas on different topics and discuss future pathways for achieving goals. The different topics discussed by each group included:

• Closing monitoring and observations gaps and regional exchange initiatives
• Mountain Dialogue: what’s next for mountains in the UNFCCC?
• Climate change-biodiversity interlinkages for mountain areas in the CBD/UNFCCC policy processes
• Solutions for adaptation in mountains

Speakers

• Ms. Irina Mkrtchyan, Co-Founder of Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities Armenia
• Mr. Murat Zhumashev, Director of CAMP Alatoo in Kyrgyzstan
• Mr. Raphael Lelouvier, Alpine Convention Secretariat
• Ms. Alex Mackey, Project Manager, Zoï Environment Network
• Dr. Carolina Adler, Executive Director, Mountain Research Initiative
• Mr. Pradyumna Rana, Intervention Manager- Global Engagement, ICIMOD
• Mr. Matthias Jurek, Programme Management Office, UNEP