B. B. Alikhanov, Chairman of the Committee of the Senate of Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Development of the Aral Sea region, Chairman of the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan, Academician of the International Academy of Ecology and Life Safety

F. T. Ganiyeva, Head of the Department for development of Relations with Foreign and International Environmental Organizations of the Ecoparty and Eco-movements of Uzbekistan

Changing the old model of raw– material–intensive economy, which leads to an increase in costs and decrease in productivity, an increase in the negative impact on the environment, is one of the acute problems of our time. Today, many countries are stepping up their environmental policy in orderto move from the traditional model of development, where environmental protection is considered a burden on the economy, to a model in which ecology is recognized as the engine of development, i.e. to a "green" economy.

Today, each of us begins to think: what is happening to the environment? The answer is obvious. We are not only witnessing a pandemic of nature, but also in many ways its culprits.

In our opinion, there is an idiom of the critical temperature theory. The planet Earth is a single whole, in some ways similar to a living organism.

A biological organism with impairment of functions of normal life demonstrates increasing in body temperature to protect against harmful bacteria and viruses, which helps to improve its resistance to harmful effects. At the same time, there is a critical limit to such actions: for a person, for example, an increase in body temperature to 42 degrees can lead to a fatal outcome.

The Earth also has a critical limit, exceeding which will lead to irreversible processes.

The proclamation of a new global "green" course is one of the ways of development that can restore stability of global economic and financial systems, ensure stable growth of human development.

In a simplified concept, a "green" economy is an economy with the efficient use of natural resources, the widespread use of renewable, resource – saving, waste– free and low–waste technologies, with low greenhouse gas emissions, with a significant reduction in risks to the environment.

That is why the President of Uzbekistan Sh. M. Mirziyoyev on June 14, 2019, at a meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO member States in Bishkek, proposed to adopt the "green belt" Program in order to widely introduce modern resource - saving and environmentally friendly technologies in the SCO countries.

Development of "green" economy, including in the context of reducing the negative consequences of the Aral crisis and socio–economic, environmental rehabilitation of the Aral Sea region are of urgent importance not only for Uzbekistan, but also for the whole Central Asia.

Among the promising areas for the introduction of a green economy in the agricultural sector of the republic is the development of the production of environmentally friendly agricultural products.

Today, many states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have already made political decisions on transition to renewable energy sources, fully encourage organic agriculture, increase subsidies for the development of environmental projects and the renewable energy industry, increase land and water capacity, improve regulatory documents in the field of development and stimulation of the "green" economy.

In these circumstances, as part of consistent and phased implementation of reforms in the field of state and public construction in Uzbekistan, tasks aimed at accelerating the process of transition of our republic to a "green" economy and effective achievement of sustainable development goals are brought to the fore. Moreover, this is becoming a key issue in the fight against climate change.

Intensive desertification of the territories of the Aral Sea region, accompanied by the process of pasture degradation, soil salinization, development of Aeolian processes, led to the formation of a new Aralkum desert that gives rise to about 100 million tons of dust and toxic salts annually spreading for hundreds of kilometres.

Due to the drying up of the sea, climate changes in the Aral basin are much more severe than in other regions, twice as intense as the average values in the world (0.29 0C vs. 0.14 0C, respectively), the daily temperature range has increased, the relative humidity of the air has decreased, especially in the warm period of the year, the number of days with an air temperature of more than 40 0C has increased.

In this regard, Uzbekistan is taking the following measures:

– implementation of political decisions in the field of strengthening regional cooperation;

– improving the regulatory framework in the field of environmental protection;

– development and adoption of development programs and strategies;

– implementation of investment projects;

– organization of scientific and practical forums with the participation of leading experts in the field of ecology.

It should be noted that today the large– scale work that has no analogues is being carried out in the Aral Sea region to improve the economic, social and environmental situation. Only for the period from December 2018 to March 2021, about 1.7 million hectares were sown with saxaul seeds on the dried–up bottom of the Aral Sea (including with the help of aviation).

Planting desert–resistant plants on the bottom of the Aral Sea simultaneously solves several important tasks.

1.       Conditions are being created to mitigate the state of the environment and prevent further degradation of natural resources.

2.       The maximum volume of sand is retained on the drained bottom of the Aral Sea.

3.       A favorable ecosystem is being formed for distribution and reproduction of various species of fauna.

4.       Increasing the area of desert forests and biodiversity will create conditions for climate mitigation in this region.

Promising areas for introduction of a "green" economy in the agricultural sector of the country include development of the production of environmentally friendly agricultural products.

Another initiative of Uzbekistan was the development and adoption of the Concept of Cooperation in the field of "smart" agriculture and introduction of agro–innovations that will contribute to solving the problems of food security in the region, which are getting worse against population growth, depletion of land and water resources and climate change.

Currently, many farms in Uzbekistan produce environmentally friendly products. At the same time, technologies of effective microorganisms (EM–technology) and biological plant protection products are used - the most advanced alternatives to the use of pesticides in agriculture. This is a practical transition from chemical to organic "smart" agriculture, i.e. to growing agricultural products without mineral fertilizers and chemicals.

At the same time, there is an acute need for scientific and innovative developments in such areas as organic farming, personalized and "smart" agriculture, creation of genotypes of agricultural crops with high yields and resistant to harsh edaphoclimatic conditions. In addition, about 90% of the water resources of the Central Asian region are still used in agriculture with inefficient irrigation methods. In these circumstances, the issue of exchange of experience between countries in the field of development and implementation of modern environmentally friendly resource - and water–saving technologies in agriculture is becoming relevant.

The most important directions of "greening" of the water sector of the country are also improvement of the drinking water supply system and development of environmentally safe sewerage systems.

The modernization of water supply networks carried out in areas with insufficient development of centralized drinking water supply represents practical steps to "greening" this sector. Thus, in the Aral Sea region, the development of this sector is planned both on the basis of improving the main water pipelines, and on the basis of creating local systems, desalination plants.

In order to improve the drinking water supply and sanitation of settlements, as well as to improve the health of the population, decisive measures are being taken in the country to strengthen the protection of drinking water sources from pollution and depletion, to provide drinking water to hard–to– reach and remote rural settlements, to improve the systems for treatment of industrial and domestic wastewater in cities and settlements.

«GREEN» ECONOMY

Development of renewable energy sources plays a special role in transition of the energy sector of Uzbekistan to “green” economy.

In the structure of primary fuel and energy resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the main place is occupied by oil, gas, as well as coal and partly by hydropower. Despite the great potential of renewable energy sources, their share does not reach even one percent.

The factor of resource limitations of hydrocarbon energy sources, the scale and rate of their depletion encourage us to take the necessary measures not to fall out of the global trend of large–scale development of alternative energy. According to expert estimates, the possibilities of using renewable energy sources in our country are equal to the equivalent of 51 billion tons of oil. The existing technologies allow obtaining energy equivalent to 179 million tons of oil, which is almost three times the volume of fuel produced in the country, as well as to prevent emissions of 447 million tons of carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants.

In order to create a legal framework, systematically consolidate priority areas and a set of state policy measures in the field of renewable energy sources, increase energy efficiency in economic sectors, the social sphere and the level of diversification of the fuel and energy balance, financial incentives for renewable energy producers, as well as strengthen the country's energy security, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On use of renewable energy sources'' was adopted in 2019.

One of the important aspects of Uzbekistan's transition to "green'' economy is development of environmentally friendly transport.

Structure of vehicles used in the country is dominated by automobile, the total number of which is more than 2.7 million units. Despite the relative efficiency and economy, motor transport is the second largest consumer of energy resources and, along with the industrial sector, is one of the main environmental pollutants. In general, the share of emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere from vehicles currently reaches 65% in the country, and in large cities, such as Tashkent, exceeds 80%. At the same time, the annual volume of emissions of pollutants due to the use of gasoline and diesel fuel in motor transport is more than 1.5 million tons.

In our opinion, one of the most effective and environmentally impeccable is the conversion of internal combustion engines to cryogenic hydrogen or gasoline– hydrogen composite fuel. Many countries are engaged in development of technology for transition to hydrogen fuel, but, unfortunately, separately.

In addition, the advantages of hydrogen as a fuel are associated not only with the fact that its combustion produces environmentally friendly water vapor, but also with the fact that, compared with organic fuel, it has a large energy reserve: when a ton of hydrogen is burned, the same amount of heat is released as when 3.5 tons of organic fuel is burned.

Education and science play a special role in Uzbekistan's transition to a "green'' economy.

In May 2019, the Government of our country approved the Concept for Development of Environmental Education in the Republic of Uzbekistan, which provides for phased introduction of a system of continuous environmental education and upbringing at all stages of training.

This requires further improvement of state standards, development of the scientific potential of the country, revision of the educational process and system of advanced training for training personnel in relevant specialties, as well as preparation and publication of teaching aids, textbooks, visual and didactic materials for educational institutions of preschool, general secondary, secondary special, professional and higher education.

Thus, responding to the most the transition to a sustainable, more environmentally friendly “green” economy will also have an impact on labor market, creating additional jobs and improving the quality of existing jobs in agriculture, processing industries, the construction industry and other areas.