Mirziyoyev at COP31 proposes a three-pillar climate integration model for Central Asia

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev spoke at the leaders' summit of the UN climate conference (COP31) in Antalya on 11 November. He proposed a climate integration model for Central Asia built on information, technology and finance.

The information pillar envisages sharing climate-risk data and an early warning system with World Meteorological Organization support, plus common indicators for slow-onset events such as glacier melt and drought. The technology pillar covers restoring degraded soils, capturing carbon in arid areas and fighting dust and sandstorms, and would turn the Central Asia ECO-EXPO into a permanent investment and technology platform. Under the finance pillar, work with development banks would focus on concessional grants and “blue” and “arid-land” financing tools.

Mirziyoyev also gave national figures: Uzbekistan has reached ahead of schedule its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP by 35 percent and plans to cut harmful emissions by 50 percent by 2035. Renewables are to reach a 54 percent share within four years, water-saving technology is used on 60 percent of irrigated land, and forest area has grown by 6 million hectares, a third of it in the Aral Sea region.

He said Uzbekistan will chair the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea next year and that the model could be extended to other regions. “No country can address the challenges of climate change on its own,” he told the summit.