National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Among the topical issues of the bilateral discussion:

– Strengthening public participation in environmental decision-making within the framework of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, which implies studying the Korean experience in increasing public participation in discussing projects implemented in Uzbekistan and expanding public involvement in the environmental decision-making process and its implementation.
– Implementation of joint projects to reduce the carbon footprint using the Korean experience, which will allow the exchange of experience and expand partnership.
– Exchange of experience and knowledge to create a testing laboratory at the Centre for State Environmental Expertise. Its creation is due to the need to verify the reliability of documents submitted by design organizations in the process of environmental assessment using modern equipment.

During the visit, it was stressed that it is necessary to study the experience of the Republic of Korea in improving the level of environmental monitoring, digitalization, and integration, which will improve the monitoring and data exchange system. This, in turn, will enable ministries and departments to create an integrated information system for obtaining environmental indicators from automated stations online and effectively managing the monitoring process.

Following the results of the visit, the following issues were agreed upon:

 • Creation of effective mechanisms for environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment processes;
 • Ensuring public access to information related to the environment and creating an effective legal framework for public hearings;
 • creation of a testing laboratory for environmental impact assessment, quality control of laboratory data and creation of an integrated digital system for obtaining real-time environmental monitoring data;
 • gaining knowledge about the experience of developed countries of the world in order to create mechanisms for bringing national legislation in the field of environmental protection in line with international standards.

The main purpose of the visit is to study the Korean experience in order to improve the environmental impact assessment system in Uzbekistan and create mechanisms to bring national legislation in this area in line with international standards. This, in turn, will help to improve the skills of specialists in this field and develop a new version of the draft law "On State Environmental Expertise, environmental Impact Assessment and strategic environmental assessment".