President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) in Antalya

News of Cental Asia

12.11.2026

The President outlined Uzbekistan’s progress on climate action. The country has achieved its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP by 35% ahead of schedule and has set a new goal of a 50% reduction by 2035. The economy’s water intensity has nearly halved over the past decade, while renewable sources are set to account for 54% of electricity generation within four years.

Climate threats, however, do not stop at national borders. Melting glaciers, water scarcity and extreme droughts pose shared challenges across Central Asia. Stressing that no country can tackle climate change alone, the President proposed developing a Central Asian Climate Integration Model.

He proposed launching cooperation across three key pillars:

Information — establishing infrastructure for sharing climate-risk data with support from the World Meteorological Organization, including early warning systems for natural disasters and joint monitoring of slow-onset events;

Technology — deploying nature-based technologies to restore soils, capture carbon in arid areas and combat dust and sandstorms, while turning the Central Asia ECO-EXPO into a permanent investment and technology platform;

Finance — working with development banks and dedicated funds to develop new support instruments, including concessional grants and blue and arid financing mechanisms.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev also announced that Uzbekistan will assume the chairmanship of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea next year. He called on countries and international organisations to support climate integration through concrete action and proposed extending the model to other interested regions.

“Protecting our planet is a responsibility we all share,” the President said in closing.