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.
