Collective exchanges have become increasingly important as Central Asian countries work together to respond to their common climate crisis. There’s much to do in a part of the world where air temperatures are rising much faster than the global average. The damage is widespread and accelerating: extreme weather events, glacier melt, floods, forest fires, drought, and water scarcity. The Caspian Sea’s falling water levels are alarming to a region still grappling with the devastating environmental consequences of the Aral Sea disaster. Desertification and air pollution have had long-term health effects. 

Host to this year’s Central Asia Climate Change Conference (CACCC) 13-15 May, a gathering of regional and international experts, Ashgabat is no stranger to very hot summers. On 14 May, the temperature in Turkmenistan’s capital reached 41C (106F), with summer temperatures expected to be even higher.  As the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belem, Brazil, draws near, CACCC and the April 2025 Samarkand Climate Forum are significant regional contributions to the Baku- to-Belém Roadmap dialogue on scaling up climate finance, and for next year’s Regional Environment Summit in Astana.

Women and children are disproportionately affected. There is growing international evidence that higher temperatures can increase the risk of premature or stillborn births. One striking study referenced in Ashgabat concluded that for every temperature increase of one degree Celsius in the week before delivery, there was a six percent greater likelihood of a stillbirth.

Central Asian leaders are well aware of the challenges. In Samarkand, all five Presidents set out their priorities and agendas directly. Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted 2024’s record-breaking global average temperature above 1.5C. Central Asia’s Regional Climate Change Adaptation Strategy reflected shared concerns about the severity of climate damage that has implications for food and energy security and falling agricultural yields in a region highly vulnerable to further land degradation. Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev added that the seriousness of the situation required co-ordinated action, noting the need to find a balance between economic growth and implementation of the climate agenda. 

In recent years Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have given higher priority to green development and nature issues. Mirziyoyev’s water initiatives include concreting irrigation networks, new water-saving technologies, and a proposed international forum in the Aral Sea region. Kazakhstan is proactive on forest protection and tree planting. Tokayev announced an International Fund for Biodiversity to help to preserve regional species, an initiative that will be of interest in next year’s Biodiversity COP17 in Yerevan.

Presidents Sadyr Japarov (Kyrgyzstan) and Emomali Rahmon (Tajikistan) focused on the critical state of melting glaciers. Over the past 70 years, Kyrgyzstan’s glaciers had shrunk by 16%. By 2100 they could be more than 50% smaller. Rahmon noted the critical climate-regulating role glaciers play in the region. Tajikstan’s glaciers constitute 60% of Central Asia’s water resources, but 1,300 of 14,000 have completely melted over the past half-century. Tokayev noted that 70% of the region’s water resources were transboundary.

Water management was also a Turkmen priority. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov hoped to see increased regional collaboration on managing transboundary rivers and proposed a UN Regional Council on Water Use in Central Asia. But for him, the most important issues were decarbonisation and methane emission reductions. His headline announcement was the 11% fall in Turkmenistan's 2024 methane emissions, exceeding his government’s target. 

Scheduling the Samarkand EU/Central Asia Summit and Climate Forum back-to-back enabled Antonio Guterres (by video), Ursula Von der Leyen, Antonio Costa, EBRD President Ollie Renaud-Basso, and others to confirm support for the region. Von der Leyen took the opportunity to say that the EU had put climate security and nature protection at the heart of the new Central Asia Strategic Partnership. 

In Ashgabat, organisers CAREC (Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia) facilitated dialogues on region-led workable climate financing strategies aligned with the New Collective Quantitive Goal and broader global agendas with an aim of increasing annual regional funding by 25% over the next five years. The theme was “Achieving the Global Climate Finance Goal through Regional and National Actions in Central Asia,”

Turkmenistan’s Environmental Protection Minister Babaniyazov and senior Central Asian counterparts shared their ambitions for the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0) and the finance required. Kazakhstan was working to confirm ambitious goals and hoped to finalise its own NDC by December. For Kyrgyzstan, consultations involving civil society and other stakeholders were central.

International partners present included the World Bank led by their Global Climate Change Director, the European Commission, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK. British Ambassador Stephen Conlon’s speech about tackling climate change through finance included the UK’s roles as donor, enabler, and partner as home to the City of London – a hub of Green Finance. During London Climate Action Week, the Fourth Net Zero Delivery Summit would convene finance leaders on 23 June. The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change brought together more than 400 private investors to navigate the transition. British support for the region included technical assistance and institutional strengthening, climate risk insurance pilots, UK Export Finance credit lines, and funding for the World Bank’s Central Asia Water-Energy Programme and the UK-Central Asia Green Inclusive Growth Fund. 

Central Asian countries have no illusions: achieving climate targets requires high levels of public and private financing but getting access to climate finance remains very difficult in a highly competitive environment. The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) discussed a combination of innovative options for climate finance mobilisation that they and other international development partners could help to drive forward, including a pilot regional carbon market and trading system, bond programmes for energy and infrastructure, insurance products for agriculture, debts for climate swaps, and a Regional Climate Innovation Lab. Italy’s Environment Ministry described an innovative accelerator for ecosystem solutions and the Kyrgyz Bank Eldik’s perspective on transforming local banks into global partners.

In a session on regional climate risk cooperation, GIZ presented its Climate Risk Management in Central Asia programme (CRM CA), including approaches to integrating climate risk assessments into strategic and sectoral policy. The session also covered gender-sensitive climate strategy development including integrating sexual and reproductive health issues into NDCs and National Action Plans (NAPs). Another session reaffirmed the region’s commitment to ambitious and actionable NDCs aligned with the Enhanced Transparency Frameworks, supported by bodies including the NDC Partnership and the Climate Transparency Platform’s Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency.

A detailed panel session on Transboundary Landscape Restoration in Central Asia looked at the World Bank’s RESILAND CA+ programme to fight land degradation, build climate resilience across borders, and promote sustainable land management. The Bank assessed that the average annual investment required during 2025-50 for 0.63 million hectares of Turkmenistan’s degraded land was just under $40 million in current values terms. Restoration brought an average annual benefit of just over $175 million in PV terms over the same period. Economically, it was significantly cheaper to take restorative action than not. Every U.S. dollar invested in Turkmenistan land restoration auctions would give a return of about $4.5. 

Minister Babaniyazov set out progress on Turkmenistan’s new law for curbing GHG emissions and Cabinet agreement on the 2025-26 Methane Roadmap. Addressing methane emissions is the fastest way to drive down global temperatures. Key findings from the Global Methane Assessment include that methane emissions can be reduced by up to 45% by 2030. CAREC is delivering a Global Methane Hub-fund project on capacity building for regional methane emission reduction.  GIZ is implementing an EU co-funded project to assess the effectiveness of Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) technologies to reduce methane emissions in Turkmenistan. UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory programme is improving transparency by providing accurate data in real time to enable targeted action. 

Central Asian climate collaboration is not new. CAREC was set up in 2001 and Ashgabat was the seventh CACCC. At Dubai’s COP28, the Central Asia Pavilion operated under the theme, “Five Countries - One Region - One Voice.” Having the “Caspian COP” in Baku the following year helped to take this further. The Astana International Forum included climate sessions looking forward to the 2026 Regional Summit. The next Consultation Meeting in Bonn in mid-June will aim to bring together the findings and outcomes of the various conferences to be fed into national and regional policy making and contribute to the Summit preparations by communicating these internationally. As COP30 Belém gets closer, Central Asia has a lot to say about the shared challenges but also about the opportunities and progress. The international community has a strong stake in supporting their climate action.