Environmental Development in Central Asia: towards Sustainability?

This article deals with the environmental development of the post-socialist countries of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Afghanistan. We aimed at such targets and indicators used in the seventh Millennium Development Goal that have been documented with consistent and comparable data from the United Nations, namely carbon dioxide emissions and energy use and improved water sources and facilities. The countries of interest cannot be considered as significant global CO₂ emitters, however, the steady tendency towards industrialization and urbanization can be seen in the data. The data on proportion of the population using improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities are optimistic even on a global scale. However, the regional specifics of Central Asia discover further significant dimensions of the water problem, especially water pollution.