The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) may soon become a central regional platform promoting clean energy in Central Asia. It is currently building momentum in renewable energy by ramping up investment in energy generation, upgrading power grids, creating battery storage networks, and developing the renewable energy workforce in the region. Central Asia needs to be proactive in securing SCO instruments that can build value-added clean energy supply chains in the region. This will help Central Asia strengthen its economic and political agency.
The SCO and evolution of regional ties
Kamila Beishembaeva.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization established in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, building on the earlier “Shanghai Five” mechanism. Since 2001, it has expanded to include India, Pakistan, Iran, and Belarus as full members, making it one of the world’s largest regional organizations in terms of geographic coverage and population. The SCO member states collectively possess over 50% of the world’s natural gas reserves, nearly 50% of the world’s known uranium reserves, rich mineral resources, and have high potential for producing wind and solar energy.
In 2006, Russia and Uzbekistan proposed establishing the SCO Energy Club. The proposal gained political support at the 2007 SCO Summit in Bishkek, where energy cooperation became a key item on the agenda, but member states differed over the club’s objectives and institutional design, delaying its formal establishment. A major milestone came in December 2013, when SCO member states, observers, and dialogue partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the SCO Energy Club as a non-governmental consultative mechanism. After that, the Energy Club functioned as a forum for discussing regional energy strategies, infrastructure development, investment opportunities, energy security, and, more recently, energy transition. It provided a venue where major energy exporters (Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, later Iran), major consumers (China and India), and transit countries (the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan) could discuss regional energy cooperation and identify investment opportunities.
The Energy Club regularly highlighted the importance of regional gas connectivity, but the construction and expansion of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline were negotiated and financed through bilateral agreements between China and Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, not through the Energy Club. Still, the Energy Club was successful as a networking and agenda-setting platform. Its greatest contribution was reducing political and informational barriers among governments and energy companies, making it easier for countries, especially China and Russia, to pursue bilateral fossil fuel and infrastructure projects.
Renewable energy is gaining momentum
During its first two decades, the organization’s energy agenda focused primarily on energy security, oil and gas cooperation, electricity trade, and energy infrastructure, while references to renewable energy were infrequent and rhetorical. A significant shift occurred in 2021, when the SCO established the Meeting of Energy Ministers and adopted the Concept of Cooperation between the SCO Member States in the Energy Sector until 2030, which for the first time identified renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon technologies, and green development as areas of cooperation. The 2025 Tianjin Summit marked a notable shift in the SCO’s renewable energy agenda, moving from general commitments to more concrete initiatives. More significantly, China announced the establishment of a China–SCO Energy Cooperation Platform to promote practical collaboration, technology exchange, and investment among SCO members. These initiatives indicate that renewable energy has become a strategic priority within the SCO’s agenda.
Roman Vakulchuk.
The new SCO renewable energy platform is likely to replicate the Energy Club’s institutional logic. However, there are two important differences that could make the renewable energy platform more influential than the Energy Club. First, when the Energy Club was created in 2013, there was no comparable global momentum behind clean energy. Today, renewable energy is a strategic priority for nearly all SCO members, driven by national net-zero commitments, declining technology costs, energy security concerns, and China’s global leadership in clean energy technologies. Individual member states are also experiencing a renewable energy boom. India and China are the world’s leading renewable energy superpowers. After 2021, Pakistan has seen a massive rooftop solar boom driven by surging grid electricity prices and cheap imported solar panels. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are making strides in attracting FDI into clean energy. This means the China–SCO Energy Cooperation Platform operates in a much more favorable political and economic environment than the Energy Club did. Consequently, while its institutional role may mirror that of the Energy Club, its practical impact could be greater because it can build upon existing national renewable energy programs and financing rather than attempting to create a new regional market from scratch.
In 2025-2026, a number of initiatives were launched to drive the energy transition under the SCO umbrella. First, the organization has been actively contributing to a structural transformation of transnational grid infrastructure and clean energy connectivity in Central Asia. Guided by its Strategy for Development of Energy Cooperation until 2030, the SCO is supporting integrated electrical networks to manage the region’s large-scale green energy transition. Second, SCO members develop plans to construct an interconnected Eurasian power grid, enabling cross-border electricity trade and mutual balancing.
Third, the SCO is investing in decentralized hubs, battery storage networks, solar-hydrogen clusters, and frequency control reserves to resolve renewable intermittency issues and stabilize fragile national grids. The SCO Development Bank created in 2025 in Tianjin, China,is backing these initiatives and will be instrumental in financing them in the future.
Fourth, a new wave of scientific exchange on clean energy has been organized. In August 2026, the 3rd International Forum of Academicians on Green Energy of the SCO member states was held in Bishkek, bringing together academics and energy experts from Central Asia and China to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation on clean energy. This and other similar SCO initiatives aim to develop the local workforce for renewable energy industries.
At the SCO summit on Sept. 1, in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted that the world is on track to exceed the 1.5°C temperature limit. He urged leaders of the SCO to take immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and called for a faster transition to renewable energy.
Opportunities and risks for Central Asia
The emerging SCO renewable energy platform presents both opportunities and risks for Central Asian countries. On the one hand, it can facilitate access to Chinese investment, renewable energy technologies, technical expertise, and policy coordination while reducing political barriers to cross-border cooperation on issues such as electricity trade, grid modernization, and renewable energy deployment. It may also strengthen regional dialogue and provide Central Asian states with an additional platform to attract investment and diversify their energy partnerships. On the other hand, because the SCO lacks its own financing and implementation mechanisms, the greatest benefits are likely to accrue to members with the financial and technological capacity to initiate projects, particularly China, as in the case of MENA collaboration. This could reinforce existing asymmetries, increasing Central Asian countries’ dependence on Chinese capital, technology, equipment, and supply chains. To mitigate this risk, Central Asia needs to be proactive in securing SCO instruments that would enhance value-added clean energy supply chains in the region and, as a result, strengthen the region’s economic and political agency.
The authors are Kamila Beishembaeva, a researcher with the Central Asian Development Institute and Roman Vakulchuk, senior economist with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Co-Founder of the Central Asian Development Institute.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Astana Times.
