Spatial Statecraft and Carbon Governance in Semi‐Peripheral Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT This article examines Uzbekistan's climate governance as a case of hybrid environmental policymaking in a post‐socialist, semi‐authoritarian context. While adopting global climate norms and expanding renewable infrastructure, Uzbekistan's decarbonization strategy remains anchored in executive‐led modernization and legacies of centralized planning. Drawing on qualitative analysis of policy documents, donor programs, and development strategies, the study shows how climate action functions as spatial statecraft, consolidating territorial authority, attracting foreign capital, and reinforcing regime legitimacy. The article introduces the concept of carbon patrimonialism to explain how climate finance circulates through elite networks, reproducing rather than transforming existing power asymmetries. By situating Uzbekistan within broader debates on authoritarian environmentalism and post‐socialist development, the paper highlights the limits of technocratic and market‐centric models for explaining climate governance beyond liberal democracies. It argues for a framework that foregrounds institutional hybridity, uneven development, and political contingency in analyzing decarbonization in the semi‐periphery and Global East.