Peripheral Carbon Governance: Neoliberal Spatial Fixes and Rise of Carbon Markets in Uzbekistan

Abstract This study examines Uzbekistan’s early integration into global carbon markets through the World Bank–supported iCRAFT programme (Article 6, Paris Agreement). Rather than advancing structural decarbonization, Uzbekistan’s carbon finance primarily serves fiscal stabilization, regulatory alignment and geopolitical positioning. This study develops the concept of peripheral carbon governance by engaging existing literature and publicly available data on energy pricing reforms, emissions monitoring systems and climate‐finance flows. This framework explains how global carbon markets reshape state authority in post‐socialist, fossil fuel–dependent economies. Findings show that market integration reproduces spatial inequalities, prioritizes external compliance over domestic transformation and embeds peripheral states into global financial architectures without dismantling fossil fuel dependency. Climate finance thus emerges not as a vehicle of transition, but as a mechanism that stabilizes accumulation while reproducing systemic asymmetries in Global South climate action.