Development finance assessment

Climate spending
Spending on environmental protection and climate change is increasing but remains very low at 
0.05 percent of GDP (Asian Development Bank, 2020). Uzbekistan uses earmarked environmental 
funds to support environmental activities. All the Fund resources are spent exclusively on current 
expenditure, however. The fragmentation of the environmental sector contributes significantly 
to the challenge of adequately financing priority environmental programmes (OECD, 2011). 
Internationally recognized issues, such as climate change, the green growth initiative, and the 
direct involvement of ministries of finance and economy at the forefront of these processes, have 
helped raise the profile of environmental authorities. 
Better expenditure planning and management practices would support the climate related 
institutions to compete for budget resources. Demand for improved expenditure management 
practices can generated, and is a responsibility of not only of decision makers, but also citizens’ 
and grass-root organizations. Donors have a crucial role to play in supporting such initiatives. 
The scale of budgetary expenditure on climate finance is unclear. To allow a more strategic 
use of domestic public resources for financing Uzbekistan’s environmentally sustainable socio-
economic development, in line with its multiple strategic programs and plans, requires identifying 
and tracking budget allocations that respond to climate change challenges. Undertaking a 
systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of a country’s public expenditures and how they 
relate to climate change, in the form of a Climate Public Expenditures and Institutional Review
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(CPEIR), could inform a more holistic and effective government approach towards mitigating and 
adapting to climate change. Following the CPEIR authorities could further explore the value of 
establishing a climate budget tagging system to monitor and manage climate related expenditure 
year-on-year.