TEHRAN, November 14. /Dunyo IA/.   Chairman of the Board of the Iranian company “Ala Tejarat Mahad Qabus” Sulayman Hivechi commented for Dunyo IA on the participation of the President of Uzbekistan in the World Leaders Climate Action Summit of the 31^st  Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) in Antalya:

- Uzbekistan is consistently building a state system of climate policy. The participation of the country’s leader in this conference opens up significant opportunities for strengthening international standing, expanding partnerships and advancing regional initiatives. In recent years, the climate agenda has become one of the priority areas of Uzbekistan’s domestic reforms and foreign policy.

Regional cooperation is of particular importance. Water scarcity, desertification, and land degradation affect all Central Asian countries, as well as Iran, to varying degrees. Clearly, these challenges can only be effectively countered through coordinated action by states.

Cooperation between Uzbekistan and Iran in the field of climate change is one of the promising areas of bilateral relations. Both countries face common environmental threats: drought, water shortages, land degradation, rising temperatures, and a decline in biological diversity. Since Uzbekistan and Iran are located in arid and semi-arid regions, our countries share a mutual interest in advancing climate change adaptation, the rational use of natural resources and building an environmentally sustainable economy.

For Uzbekistan, the consequences of the drying up of the Aral Sea, soil salinization, the degradation of the Aral Sea region’s ecosystems, and dependence on the transboundary water resources of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya are particularly acute. In Iran, among the most serious problems are the depletion of groundwater reserves, the declining water level of Lake Urmia, drying up of rivers and water bodies, excessive water use in agriculture and the increasing frequency of extreme heatwaves.

An important legal foundation for our cooperation was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on environmental issues and nature protection on September 14^th, 2022. This document laid the groundwork for the further development of bilateral ties in the environmental sphere.

I believe that cooperation between Uzbekistan and Iran in the field of climate policy holds significant potential. Shared environmental challenges create favorable conditions for pooling the scientific, technological and institutional capabilities of the two states.

At the next stage, it is important to move from general environmental dialogue to the implementation of concrete joint climate projects. Such initiatives must include clear timelines, financing mechanisms and measurable results.