BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 18. Uzbekistan is
broadening the scope of its environmental agenda as part of a
broader strategy to promote sustainable economic development,
modernize infrastructure, and enhance climate resilience.
The country’s environmental policy encompasses a range of
interconnected areas, including renewable energy development, water
resource management, ecosystem restoration, waste management,
environmental monitoring, and climate-resilient urban development.
In parallel with its domestic efforts, Uzbekistan is strengthening
international cooperation to attract investment, technological
solutions, and specialized expertise to facilitate the
implementation of green projects.
This growing emphasis reflects a more integrated approach to
environmental governance, in which climate considerations, natural
resource management, and sustainable infrastructure development are
increasingly aligned with the country’s broader economic
development objectives.
Renewable energy becomes a measurable part of the
transition
The most clearly measurable progress has been achieved in the
renewable energy sector. Uzbekistan generated 7 billion
kilowatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources during the
first seven months of 2026, representing a 23% year-on-year
increase. The country currently operates 21 renewable energy
facilities with a combined installed capacity of 5,602 megawatts,
comprising 15 solar power plants with a total capacity of 3,930 MW
and six wind farms with 1,672 MW.
The expansion of renewable generation has accelerated
significantly in recent years. Electricity production from
renewable sources increased from 576.9 million kWh in 2023 to 4.9
billion kWh in 2024 and reached 10.5 billion kWh in 2025. Between
2022 and July 2026, Uzbekistan generated more than 23.4 billion kWh
of electricity from renewable sources.
The environmental benefits of this transition are also becoming
increasingly quantifiable. According to the Uzbek Energy Ministry,
the growing use of renewable electricity has contributed to savings
of approximately 6.24 billion cubic meters of natural gas and
prevented the release of around 13.46 million metric tons of
pollutants into the atmosphere.
These developments indicate that renewable energy is evolving
beyond its role as an instrument of climate policy. It is
increasingly serving as a component of Uzbekistan’s energy security
and economic development strategies by reducing pressure on natural
gas resources while generating demand for new electricity
generation and transmission infrastructure.
International financing represents an important component of
this transition. The European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development’s energy portfolio in Uzbekistan has reached nearly $2
billion, with cooperation encompassing renewable energy,
transmission infrastructure, and electrification projects. The
parties have also discussed increasing local content in energy
projects, indicating a growing emphasis on deriving domestic
industrial benefits from foreign-funded green infrastructure.
Water security is moving toward technology and
infrastructure
Water management represents another area where environmental
policy increasingly overlaps with infrastructure development.
In July, Uzbekistan and Chinese partners discussed upgrading
water supply and sanitation systems, modernizing wastewater
treatment, improving water-use efficiency and introducing digital
technologies into regional utilities.
Chinese partners presented experience in wastewater treatment
modernization and water-resource efficiency, as well as
public-private partnership models and digital control systems for
communal services.
Cooperation with China is also being extended to irrigation and
land restoration. Under agreements signed in June, Chinese partners
agreed to supply water-saving irrigation technologies, including a
demonstration fertigation system, while providing training for
Uzbek specialists.
The cooperation is particularly relevant to Uzbekistan because
water efficiency is becoming increasingly important not only for
agriculture but also for combating desertification and maintaining
newly established green areas. The country has already implemented
projects involving halophyte nurseries and seeds, while a project
in Surkhandarya envisages pistachio plantations across 5,000
hectares as part of ecosystem restoration and carbon absorption
efforts.
This suggests a shift from simply expanding green areas toward
developing the technological infrastructure required to make such
efforts sustainable in an arid environment.
Regional water cooperation is also becoming a central component
of Uzbekistan’s environmental strategy. In June, environmental
authorities from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan signed a letter of intent to jointly implement the
$26 million Central Asia Water and Land Nexus (CAWLN) program,
financed by the Global Environment Facility. The initiative focuses
on restoring degraded ecosystems, strengthening water security,
promoting climate-resilient agriculture and improving sustainable
natural-resource management. Uzbekistan highlighted the restoration
of riparian forests and wetlands along the Amu Darya, afforestation
of the dried Aral Sea seabed, rehabilitation of degraded pastures,
and wider use of water-saving technologies. The country also
proposed hosting the program’s coordination office at Green
University in Tashkent, potentially giving Uzbekistan a stronger
coordinating role in regional water and land management. The
initiative is particularly significant for Uzbekistan because
nearly 80% of its water resources originate outside its borders,
making regional cooperation and integrated management of the Amu
Darya and Syr Darya increasingly important.
Uzbekistan advances desertification control and
ecosystem restoration
Uzbekistan’s environmental strategy is also strongly shaped by
its geography.
The country is expanding cooperation with China on
desertification control, degraded-land restoration and sustainable
forestry. A cooperation agreement between China’s M-Grass Ecology
and Environment Group and Green University covers seed and seedling
production, restoration of degraded grasslands, combating
desertification and environmental technologies.
At the regional level, Uzbekistan is also seeking to coordinate
responses to drought, land degradation and sand and dust
storms.
During talks with the Organization of Turkic States, Uzbekistan
proposed developing national and regional early-warning systems for
sand and dust storms and establishing a National Climate and
Hydrometeorology Center integrating climate, meteorological and
scientific data.
The proposed initiatives also include drought monitoring,
forecasting models, remote sensing and climate analytics, with
pilot projects envisioned for desertification-prone areas,
particularly the Aral Sea region.
The significance of this approach is that desertification is
increasingly being treated not simply as an environmental issue,
but as a question of water management, agricultural productivity,
climate adaptation, technology and regional economic
resilience.
Waste management is becoming an environmental
infrastructure market
Waste is another area where the environmental agenda is
increasingly connected with investment.
In June, Uzbekistan reviewed plans for waste-to-energy
facilities. According to the data, two plants were expected to be
launched in 2026, followed by nine more over the next two years.
Together, the projects are expected to have capacity to process up
to 5.5 million tons of waste annually and reduce greenhouse-gas
emissions by approximately 1.1 million tons.
Uzbekistan is also seeking foreign expertise in hazardous
industrial waste management. ACWA Power is involved in a $260
million project to establish a modern hazardous industrial waste
management complex, with the two sides discussing measures to
accelerate implementation.
The cooperation with ACWA Power is also expanding into
climate-risk management through plans for a national sand and dust
storm monitoring and early-warning system.
The combination of waste processing, waste-to-energy and
hazardous-waste infrastructure indicates that environmental
protection is creating a new segment of infrastructure investment
rather than remaining limited to regulatory measures.
Air quality cooperation expands across Central
Asia
Air quality is also becoming an important area of regional
environmental cooperation. Uzbekistan is working with neighboring
countries to strengthen monitoring systems, exchange scientific
data and develop coordinated approaches to improving air quality
across borders.
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to strengthen cooperation
on air-quality monitoring and reducing transboundary pollution.
Their discussions included monitoring concentrations of PM10 and
PM2.5, atmospheric circulation, and the movement of pollutants
across borders.
The countries plan to establish a joint scientific working group
to develop practical measures for reducing transboundary pollution.
Uzbekistan is also implementing its Clean Air initiative, including
emissions filtration systems and an environmental vehicle sticker
system.
Uzbekistan is simultaneously looking to Japan for environmental
monitoring technologies. Cooperation with Japan includes the
possible introduction of advanced air-quality monitoring,
forecasting and early-warning systems under the country’s Clean Air
program for 2026–2030. The two sides have also discussed the
possible establishment of a service center for Japanese
analytical-instrument manufacturer HORIBA.
This points to another important trend: environmental policy is
becoming increasingly dependent on data infrastructure. Monitoring
pollution, forecasting extreme weather and measuring climate risks
require technological systems capable of producing reliable
information for government and investors.
Cities are emerging as a new front of climate
policy
Rapid urbanization is adding another dimension to Uzbekistan’s
environmental agenda.
Uzbekistan and Japan recently discussed strengthening the
resilience of Central Asian cities to climate change and natural
disasters, including through early-warning systems, disaster
preparedness and risk-based urban planning.
The discussions covered seismic safety, flood preparedness and
resilient infrastructure, while Japan offered experience in
disaster-risk reduction, technology and public-private
partnerships. Uzbekistan’s cities, including Tashkent and Namangan,
were presented as examples of where climate-resilience measures are
being implemented.
Separately, cooperation with UN-Habitat has focused on
energy-efficient housing, infrastructure quality, social inclusion
and sustainable urban planning. A pilot project is being developed
in Samarkand with UN-Habitat support.
The urban dimension is particularly important because
environmental policy is gradually moving beyond forests, deserts
and power plants and into the everyday infrastructure of rapidly
growing cities.
International financing is becoming a key
component
The scale of Uzbekistan’s environmental agenda also requires
financial resources that cannot come solely from the state
budget.
During the 2026 GEF Assembly and Eco Expo Central Asia,
Uzbekistan secured agreements on national and regional projects
worth more than $50 million in GEF grants, while the exhibition
attracted $80 million in grants and more than $520 million in green
investments. Around 300 agreements were signed in areas including
renewable energy, water management and waste recycling.
The country is also seeking closer cooperation with multilateral
financial institutions. During the Tashkent International
Investment Forum, Uzbekistan discussed green-economy financing,
sustainable infrastructure and climate adaptation with the New
Development Bank.
The country’s environmental targets presented during those
discussions include planting 1 billion trees and shrubs, increasing
protected areas to 21% of national territory, raising waste
recycling rates to 40% and reducing pollutant emissions.
Uzbekistan is therefore developing not only environmental
projects but also an emerging green-finance ecosystem around
them.
From environmental policy to economic
transformation
Taken together, these developments show that Uzbekistan’s
environmental agenda is moving beyond individual ecological
projects toward a broader model combining infrastructure
development, investment and climate resilience.
Renewable energy is helping reduce reliance on conventional
fuels, while investment in water infrastructure, waste management,
ecosystem restoration and climate-resilient cities is creating new
demand for technologies and modern infrastructure. At the same
time, the scale and complexity of challenges such as water
scarcity, desertification and climate-related disasters are pushing
Uzbekistan toward greater regional cooperation and international
investment.
The growing number of projects, financing agreements and
technology partnerships suggests that environmental policy is
increasingly becoming part of Uzbekistan’s wider economic
development strategy. The key challenge now is implementation:
translating international agreements and pilot projects into
operational infrastructure and measurable improvements in water
efficiency, air quality, waste recycling, land restoration and
climate resilience.
In this sense, the success of Uzbekistan’s green transition will
ultimately depend not only on the amount of investment attracted,
but on how effectively that investment translates into long-term
environmental and economic outcomes.
