The President of Uzbekistan calls for the joint overcoming of challenges and consequences of climate change

The SCO Summit, held on September 15-16, 2022 in Samarkand, has become a significant political event in recent days.

At the representative forum, which brought together the leaders of 14 countries and more than 10 international organizations, the results of Uzbekistan's chairmanship in the SCO were summed up, as well as promising areas of cooperation were outlined.

The agenda of the summit was rich. This is evidenced by a solid package of documents aimed at strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation in trade-economic, investment, cultural-humanitarian spheres, as well as for sustainable development.

During the event, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev put forward several initiatives. In particular, the Head of the state proposed to create the SCO Climate Council that would bring together our politicians and public figures, scientists and environmental experts, as well as business representatives.

This format shall increase the effectiveness of cooperation in promoting climate adaptation projects, combating desertification and land degradation, as well as introducing water-saving technologies.

As the President of Uzbekistan stressed, it is especially needed in the context of overcoming the devastating consequences of the Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. Acting in this direction, Shavkat Mirziyoyev is sure, that the SCO will be able to make a real contribution to the implementation of large-scale work on the transformation of the Aral Sea region into a region of new hopes and opportunities.

The initiative of the President of Uzbekistan is very timely and relevant in the context of the increasing consequences of global climate change faced by all SCO countries without exception. According to the IMF report (March 2022), over the past 30 years, the temperature in the world has increased by 0.7 degrees, while in Central Asia this figure was 1.5 degrees.

Water scarcity is increasing in almost the entire space of the organization, natural disasters have become more frequent, there are land degradation, desertification and others. This year, Pakistan has experienced massive floods, China and India – droughts, Central Asian countries – abnormal heat.

At the same time, no country can cope with the challenges and threats of climate change on its own. A comprehensive approach, involving the potential of all SCO countries to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change, is needed. In this regard, Uzbekistan's initiative is aimed at uniting the efforts of the SCO members, harmonizing their policies to combat the challenges and consequences of climate change.

The Climate Council will make it possible to develop common approaches for the SCO member states in matters of mitigation and adaptation to the consequences of climate change. The Council will also contribute to determining the main directions of SCO cooperation in this area. Most importantly, it will coordinate the efforts of the Organization's countries in the environmental sphere.

It should be emphasized that the creation of the Climate Council will strengthen the institutional framework for environmental protection. A Meeting of the Heads of Ministries and Departments of the SCO Member States Responsible for Environmental Protection issues, as well as an Expert Working Group on Environmental Protection issues, operate on an ongoing basis in the SCO. The Council will organically complement the above structures.

It is noteworthy that the Samarkand initiative is a logical continuation of the proposal voiced by the President of Uzbekistan during the Bishkek SCO Summit in 2019. Then Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed the development and adoption of the SCO Green Belt Program to widely introduce modern resource-saving and environmentally friendly technologies in the Organization's countries.

In general, the creation of the Climate Council will contribute to the consolidation of the SCO countries' efforts to overcome the consequences of global climate change, as well as contribute to sustainable development in the SCO space.

Marat Aitov, 

Department Head at the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

UzA