Paper abstract:

This paper investigates Uzbekistan’s climate change trajectory by understanding its past policy strategy and the changes to tile what its future policies would shape with consideration of the current geopolitical tension. The bilateral and multilateral agreements such as the Trade Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), Paris Agreement, and other relevant agreements are dissected in this paper to grasp the context of what this could mean for the region. Also, evaluate the gaps which lead to environmental disasters such as the lack of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) tools to mitigate current and future environmental crises such as the Aral Sea Disaster and the fertilizer crisis in Uzbekistan. Recommendations to move forward on the Climate Change front in Uzbekistan is to implement data gathering on environment-related indicators. Uzbekistan’s strategy to move towards its national interest is to provide a safe environment for its people and simultaneously maintain its national role and duties that it signed in the Paris Agreement. A joint initiative with neighboring countries that are doing well in collecting regional statistics. This is especially important as Uzbekistan is surrounded by a geopolitical haze encircled by Afghanistan’s Taliban and Russia’s military operations.

Keywords: Uzbekistan, Central Asia, Climate Change, Climate Change Grant, World Bank, UNFCCC, Environmental Disaster