Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attended the opening ceremony of the Regional Environmental Summit in Astana, where he presented key initiatives to address climate challenges in Central Asia and shared the country's experience in building environmental sustainability, Gazeta.uz reports.
The event was attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, and Armenia, as well as the prime ministers of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Mirziyoyev supported the summit's main idea—a "Shared Vision for a Sustainable Future"—emphasizing that the region's environmental problems cannot be addressed without taking global climate change into account.
Uzbekistan's Challenges and Achievements
"Temperatures in Central Asia are rising twice as fast as the global average, nearly a third of glaciers have been lost, and land degradation has affected 80 million hectares," the president noted.
At the same time, Uzbekistan is demonstrating systemic results:
- Around 1 billion trees have been planted as part of the Yashil Makon project, and over 2 million hectares of forests have been created on the dry bed of the Aral Sea.
- Water-saving technologies save 10 billion cubic meters of water annually.
- The share of green energy has reached 30% and will exceed 50% by 2030.
- The Paris Agreement commitment to reduce emissions by 35% has been fulfilled ahead of schedule, with the new goal of reducing them by 50% by 2035.
- Waste-to-energy plants are being launched: two in 2026, and nine more within two years.
Key Initiatives
Mirziyoyev put forward a number of proposals for regional cooperation:
- Establish an interstate consortium, "Clean Air of Central Asia," to modernize industry and implement emission treatment systems.
- Grant regional status to the Center for Combating Desertification. Green University in Tashkent
- Create a "Green Trade Corridor for Central Asia" with preferential customs regimes for eco-products
- Create a unified investment portfolio of climate projects for the region
- Develop a Red Data Book of Central Asia under the coordination of the IUCN office in Tashkent
- Hold the Global Youth Climate Forum in Uzbekistan in 2027
The President also proposed compiling a Unified Regional Atlas of Environmental Change as a scientific and analytical basis for monitoring land and water resource degradation.
Concluding his speech, Mirziyoyev invited summit participants to the 8th Assembly of the Global Environment Facility and the World Water Forum, which will be held in 2026 in Samarkand.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
April 22, 2026