How Turkey and Uzbekistan are preparing their cities for a changing climate
From Turkey’s push to make its cities and energy systems more resilient to a new city rising outside Tashkent, planners are changing how urban areas are built, powered and adapted to environmental pressures.
Cities are home to more than half of the world's population, concentrating people and infrastructure in places increasingly exposed to heat, flooding, drought and other climate-related pressures.
In Turkey, resilience is being built into both the fabric of cities and the energy that powers them, from housing and infrastructure to the tracking of renewable electricity. In Uzbekistan, planners are working at two different scales: designing New Tashkent largely from the ground up while adapting the existing capital to a changing climate.
Building resilience into Turkish cities
The earthquakes that struck southern Turkey in February 2023 damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and displaced millions of people. Reconstruction has since extended beyond housing to municipal infrastructure and essential services.
Yasir Yılmaz, General Manager of Turkish property developer Emlak Konut, says large-scale rebuilding has extended beyond housing to wastewater infrastructure, streams and transport networks.
“While rebuilding the cities and 450,000 homes, we've restored every city complete with its infrastructure and social amenities,” Yılmaz said, adding that special attention was also paid to the climate resilience of the buildings.
Resilience also depends on the energy that powers those cities.
EPİAŞ, Turkey’s energy market operator, runs the Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin system, known as YEK-G. Its electronic certificates show that a corresponding amount of electricity was generated from renewable sources, with each certificate representing one megawatt-hour.
The voluntary system uses blockchain technology to record information about renewable electricity from generation to consumption.
Mustafa Aydin, Vice President of Energy Exchange Istanbul, points to electric vehicles as one application.
“With the YEK-G certification system, we can prove that the electricity produced by renewable energy plants actually reaches consumption,” he said. Electricity used for charging can be matched with generation from solar, wind and hydropower.
For Chris Mensah, Special Advisor to the Climate High-Level Champion, physical infrastructure and technology are only part of preparing cities for environmental risks.
“The responsibility is not about whether it is the obligation of one or the other, but creating awareness, knowledge and teaching right from the beginning,” he said.
Mensah argues that climate education should begin early, with schools helping people understand the risks their cities may face.
Starting with a blank canvas
More than 3,000 kilometres away, a city is taking shape on the eastern edge of Uzbekistan's capital.
Construction of New Tashkent began in 2023. While large parts remain building sites, the master plan provides for 2,000 hectares of green space and another 500 hectares of parks. Several major facilities, including a trigeneration plant and electrical substation, were commissioned in October 2026.
Building a city from scratch allows decisions about water, vegetation and energy to be incorporated before residents arrive.
That is particularly important for greenery. Trees can provide shade during Uzbekistan's hot summers, but maintaining vegetation creates its own demand for water.
Saidazim Sharipov, Adviser to the Director for Urban Planning Projects at the New Tashkent Directorate, says species are being selected with local conditions in mind.
“Particular attention has been given to trees that can withstand dry conditions and require less water,” Sharipov said. “Drip irrigation systems are being used to reduce water consumption.”
The approach extends beyond irrigation. Sharipov says wastewater is due to be treated for reuse as technical water and for landscaping, while buildings are expected to collect rainwater or reuse treated wastewater on their grounds.
Water requirements have also influenced the landscape. Planners are using locally adapted shrubs that require less irrigation than lawns, while canal beds have been lined to limit seepage, according to Sharipov.
Heating and cooling a new city
New Tashkent's energy infrastructure is being assembled while construction continues.
Sharaf Rajabov, Deputy Director of the New Tashkent Directorate, says rooftop solar panels are being incorporated into projects across the development.
The trigeneration plant, part of a group of new infrastructure projects in the city, is intended to provide heating and cooling through a centralised network.
“In summer, the system provides hot water as well as chilled water for cooling homes. In winter, steam produced by the boiler plant is used to provide heating,” said Asiltürk Çakmak, the project's General Engineer.
Some infrastructure is operating, while other elements remain under construction or at the planning stage. With much of New Tashkent yet to be occupied, many of these systems have not yet operated under the demands of a fully populated city.
Finding space in the existing capital
The situation is different inside Tashkent, where existing streets, buildings and neighbourhoods leave less freedom to redesign the urban landscape.
More than 1.35 million trees and shrubs were planted across the capital between 2022 and 2026, according to Uzbekistan's ecology authorities. Further green belts are planned, including new areas in Bektemir district and along the Chirchiq River corridor.
A new project in Bektemir shows what that process looks like on the ground.
In spring 2026, a green belt covering 4.23 hectares was established there, according to Bekjon Egamov, Chief Specialist at the Tashkent City Department of Ecology. It contains 1,415 ornamental trees, watered using drip irrigation to reduce water use.
Unlike New Tashkent, where green space can be planned before neighbourhoods are built, projects such as Bektemir have to find room for it within a city that is already there.
