Intended Nationally Determined Contributions of the Republic of Uzbekistan (INDC).

This Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for Uzbekistan is a multi-sectoral policy document at national level for the period of 2015-2030. Uzbekistan is one of the country’s most vulnerable to climate change. Without additional resource saving measures, the country may face deficiency of water resources, growth in land desertification and degradation, increase in occurrence of droughts and other dangerous phenomena, leading to instability of agricultural production and threatening to the country’s food security. Since the early 1950s the average rates of air temperature growth throughout the territory of Uzbekistan were 0.29оС for each ten years, which is by 2 times higher than the global warming rates. Besides, Uzbekistan has encountered the one of the most complicated problem for the Central Asia region – the Aral Sea ecological disaster. This is virtually one of the largest ecological disasters in the contemporary history. The Aral Sea, once the unique and one of the most beautiful and largest inland water bodies in the world, has turned out to be at the edge of total disappearance during the life of one generation. This has caused unprecedented disaster and irreversible damage to the local population, ecosystem and biodiversity of the Priaralie.
The country successfully carries out measures for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change impacts, including implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Projects within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. Over the entire period of the CDM project activities in Uzbekistan, it has been put into circulation 15,229,536 tons of Certified Emission Reductions in CO2-equivalent (CERs) 3, and attracted foreign private investments in amount of USD 24.4 million. Adaptation to climate change is the priority direction in Uzbekistan’s activities aimed at decrease in vulnerability and ensuring the country’s sustainability to climate change. Adaptation measures cover a wide scope of actions for protecting the communities from adverse impacts of climate change such as extreme droughts and dangerous hydro-meteorological phenomena, associated with the global change in air temperature; increasing the sustainability of strategic infrastructure and ecosystems for conservation of agro- and biodiversity; diminishing harmful impact of the Aral Sea disaster on the environment and life of millions of people living in Priaralie, through, inter alia, implementation of well-conceived targeted projects and programs supported by proper financing sources. This will require substantial assistance from the United Nations institutions, other international organizations and partner countries in development.
The arrangements (measures) to be implemented for the period up to 2030: (a) improvement of the climate resilience of the agriculture through diversification of food crops production pattern; conservation of germplasm and indigenous plant species and agricultural crops resistant to droughts, pests and diseases; development of biotechnologies and breeding new crop varieties adopted to conditions of changing climate; (b) improvement of irrigated lands affected by desertification, soil degradation and drought, increase in soil fertility of irrigated and rainfed lands; (c) further improvement of water management practice in irrigated agriculture with wide use of integrated water resources management approaches and innovative technologies for water saving, including broad introduction of drip irrigation systems; and (d) improvement of pasture productivity and fodder production in desert and piedmont areas.
Adaptation of social sector to climate change includes: (a) raising of awareness and improvement of access to information about climate change for all groups of population; (b) development of early warning systems about dangerous hydro-meteorological phenomena and climate risk management; (c) prevention of diseases onset and aggravation caused by climate change; and (d) widening the participation of the public, scientific institutions, women and local communities in planning and management, taking into account approaches and methods of gender equity.
Mitigation of the Aral Sea disaster impacts includes: (a) conservation of the current fragile ecological balance in Priaralie, combating desertification, improvement of management system, efficient and rational water resources use; (b) creation of conditions for reproduction and conservation of genofond and population health in Priaralie, development of the social infrastructure, extensive network of medical and educational organizations; (c) creation of essential social and economic mechanisms and incentives for improvement of quality and living standards for population, development of base infrastructure and communication system; (d) conservation and rehabilitation of flora and fauna biodiversity, including through creation of local water bodies in Priaralie; (e) expansion of foreign investment attraction for implementation of measures and actions for mitigation of the Aral Sea disaster impacts; and (f) conservation and restoration of forest resources, including afforestation of the dried Aral Sea bottom.