During its session on April 7, the Senate passed a landmark bill significantly toughening penalties for environmental violations in Uzbekistan.
Developed by the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change in alignment with Presidential Decree (UP-217) from November 18, 2025, the bill introduces sweeping amendments to the Code of Administrative Responsibility and several key statutes.
Specifically, the Bill "On Nature Protection" has been bolstered with new articles (54–61) that establish heavy financial sanctions for corporate entities. These penalties include:
- Riverbed & Bank Mismanagement: Fines equivalent to triple the environmental damage caused by unauthorized dredging or reinforcement works.
- Water Pollution: Fines totaling ten times the standard compensation rate for illegal wastewater discharge or contamination.
- Illegal Logging & Tree Damage: Penalties set at five times the assessed damage for common flora, rising to ten times the damage for protected or valuable species.
- Air Quality Violations: Fines ranging from two to ten times the compensation rate for emissions exceeding permitted thresholds, scaled by the severity of the impact.
- Construction Site Negligence: Triple the compensation rate for failing to meet air protection requirements at development sites.
- Illegal Incineration: Five times the compensation rate for burning fuels, waste, or hazardous materials (including tires, bitumen, fuel oil, plastic film, rubber, and wool fibers).
- Waste Mismanagement: Five times the compensation rate for violations involving the collection, transport, disposal, or recycling of waste.
Under the new framework, the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change will directly impose sanctions if guilt is admitted. In cases of dispute or non-payment within 30 days, the matter will be referred to the courts. To ensure fairness, the bill explicitly prohibits double jeopardy—individuals or firms cannot be penalized twice for the same specific offense.
The National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change first signaled a sweeping overhaul of the environmental fine system in late November. Currently, while the Code of Administrative Responsibility contains approximately 39 articles dedicated to ecological offenses, most existing sanctions are too lenient to serve as an effective deterrent.
Under current practice, accountability often falls on lower-level employees rather than the organizations themselves.
To address these shortcomings, the reform outlines a strategic shift:
- Moving Beyond Individual Blame: Moving away from the practice of penalizing only managers or rank-and-file staff.
- Corporate Accountability: Shifting the primary focus to holding legal entities (corporations) directly responsible for violations.
- Impact-Based Fines: Calculating penalties based on the actual ecological damage caused, rather than relying on fixed "Base Calculating Units" (BCUs), effectively increasing fine amounts by 5 to 10 times.
New Penalties
The bill also introduces amendments to Article 88 of the Code of Administrative Responsibility, specifically targeting air quality protection requirements.
Specifically, the bill establishes liability for the open burning of fuels, substances, materials, and waste in unauthorized locations. It also cracks down on the hazardous practice of burning tires, rubber, bitumen, fuel oil, plastic film, synthetic cardboard, wool fibers, and similar waste as fuel in greenhouses, manufacturing plants, and other industrial facilities.
The fines are structured as follows:
- For Individuals: 10 to 25 Base Calculating Units (BCU)—approximately 4.12 to 10.3 million soums. Repeat offenses trigger fines of 25 to 50 BCU (10.3–20.6 million soums).
- For Officials: 25 to 50 BCU, increasing to 50 to 70 BCU (up to 28.84 million soums) for repeat violations.
During the session, senators noted that international benchmarks were heavily considered. In Germany, for instance, fines for air pollution and illegal logging can soar to the equivalent of 7 billion soums, while Poland imposes penalties of up to 3.3 billion soums for illegal resource extraction.
In response to worsening air quality, the Ministry of Ecology was reorganized in November into the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change. This new body reports directly to the President—rather than the Cabinet of Ministers—and its chairman concurrently serves as the President's Advisor on Environmental Issues.
Furthermore, a presidential decree has established a dedicated commission to improve the ecological situation in Tashkent. According to Deputy Chairman Kazbekov, work is progressing along three fronts: conducting rapid-response raids and inspections; temporarily suspending industrial operations where necessary; and implementing long-term systemic measures grounded in rigorous scientific data.
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